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waxwing

(Encyclopedia)waxwing, any of three species of perching songbirds of the Northern Hemisphere. Waxwings have crests (raised only in alarm) and sleek brownish-gray plumage with flecks of red pigment resembling sealin...

Pergamum

(Encyclopedia)Pergamum pûrˈgəməm [key], ancient city of NW Asia Minor, in Mysia (modern Turkey), in the fertile valley of the Caicus. It became important c.300 b.c., after the breakup of the Macedonian empire, ...

Soule

(Encyclopedia)Soule so͞ol [key], small region, in Pyrénées-Atlantiques dept., SW France, bordering on Spain. Mauléon-Licharre is the traditional capital. An ancient province of the Basque Country, it was annexe...

Whitman, Marcus

(Encyclopedia)Whitman, Marcus, 1802–47, American pioneer and missionary in the Oregon country, b. Federal Hollow (later Rushville), N.Y. In 1836 he left a country medical practice to go West as a missionary for t...

pipe smoking

(Encyclopedia)pipe smoking. The habit of smoking various substances probably arose independently in different parts of the world. Herodotus in the 5th cent. b.c. describes the Scythians as inhaling the fumes of bur...

Mbuji-Mayi

(Encyclopedia)Mbuji-Mayi bäkwängˈgä [key], city (1984 pop. 486,235), capital of Kasai-Oriental prov., S central Congo (Kinshasa), on the Sankuru River. A commercial center in Luba country, it handles most of th...

New Guinea

(Encyclopedia)New Guinea gĭnˈē [key], island, c.342,000 sq mi (885,780 sq km), SW Pacific, N of Australia; the world's second largest island after Greenland. Politically it is divided into two sections: the Indo...

Turati, Filippo

(Encyclopedia)Turati, Filippo, 1857–1932, Italian political leader. An advocate of a moderate, nonviolent form of socialism, Turati cofounded the Italian Socialist party in 1892. In 1926, threatened by the growin...

Border, the

(Encyclopedia)Border, the, region surrounding the boundary between England and Scotland. From the coast near Berwick along the Tweed River through the Cheviot Hills and on to Solway Firth, the narrow, rugged countr...

Amur

(Encyclopedia)Amur ämo͝orˈ [key], Chin. Heilongjiang, river, c.1,800 mi (2,900 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Shilka and Argun rivers, NE Asia, at the Russian-Chinese border; the Amur-Shilka-Onon syst...