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bighorn, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)bighorn or Rocky Mountain sheep, wild sheep, Ovis canadensis, of W North America, formerly plentiful in mountains from SW Canada to N Mexico. Indiscriminate hunting, disease, and scarcity of food enor...

bear, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)bear, large mammal of the family Ursidae in the order Carnivora, found almost exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere. Bears have large heads, bulky bodies, massive hindquarters, short, powerful limbs,...

catechu

(Encyclopedia)catechu kătˈəcho͞o [key] or cutch, extract from the heartwood of Acacia catechu, a leguminous tree of the pulse family, native to India and Myanmar. Catechu is a fast brown dye used for various sh...

pelican

(Encyclopedia)pelican, common name for a large, gregarious aquatic bird of warm regions, allied to the cormorants and gannets. Pelicans are heavy-bodied, long-necked birds with large, flat bills. They are graceful ...

Plessy v. Ferguson

(Encyclopedia)Plessy v. Ferguson, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated but equal railroad carriages, ruling that the equal protect...

water moccasin

(Encyclopedia)water moccasin or cottonmouth, highly venomous snake, Ancistrodon piscivorus, of the swamps and bayous of the S United States. Like the closely related copperhead, it is a pit viper and has a heat-sen...

Schulz, Charles M.

(Encyclopedia)Schulz, Charles M. (Charles Monroe Schulz), 1922–2000, American cartoonist, b. Minneapolis, Minn. Creator of the syndicated comic strip Peanuts (1950–2000), one of the world's most popular example...

Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park

(Encyclopedia)Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park, 327,647 acres (132,566 hectares), SW Northern Territory, central Australia. This Anangu-owned park, leased to the Australian government by the aboriginal people, cont...

Angell, James Burrill

(Encyclopedia)Angell, James Burrill jāmz bûrˈəl ānˈjəl [key], 1829–1916, American educator, editor, and diplomat, b. Scituate, R.I., grad. Brown, 1849, and studied abroad. He became professor of modern lan...

rat

(Encyclopedia)rat, name applied to various stout-bodied rodents, usually having a pointed muzzle, long slender tail, and dexterous forepaws. It refers particularly to the two species of house rat, Rattus norvegicus...