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Salisbury, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3d marquess of

(Encyclopedia)Salisbury, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3d marquess of sôlzˈbərē [key], 1830–1903, British statesman. He entered Parliament in 1853 as a Conservative and devoted himself for 50 years to ...

hunting

(Encyclopedia)hunting, act of seeking, following, and killing wild animals for consumption or display. It differs from fishing in that it involves only land animals. Hunting was a necessary activity of early humans...

gorilla

(Encyclopedia)gorilla, an ape, genus Gorilla, native to the lowland and mountain forests of western and central equatorial Africa. The two gorilla species are the western, comprising the western lowland (G. gorilla...

crossbill

(Encyclopedia)crossbill, bird of the genus Loxia, in the finch family. Its bill, crossed at the tips, is specialized for pulling apart pine cones and picking out the seeds. Crossbills are found in the evergreen for...

Intolerable Acts

(Encyclopedia)Intolerable Acts, name given by American patriots to five laws (including the Quebec Act) adopted by Parliament in 1774, which limited the political and geographical freedom of the colonists. Four of ...

Hewlett, William Redington

(Encyclopedia)Hewlett, William Redington hyo͞oˈlĭt [key], 1913–2001, American engineer and business executive, b. Ann Arbor, Mich., grad. Stanford (B.S. 1934, Engineer 1939), Massachusetts Institute of Technol...

Jordan, Vernon Eulion, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Jordan, Vernon Eulion, Jr., 1935–2021, African-American civil-rights leader and lawyer, b. Atlanta, Ga., DePauw Univ. (BA, 1957), Howard Univ. Law Sch...

Auerbach, Red

(Encyclopedia)Auerbach, Red (Arnold Jacob Auerbach) ouˈərbăkˌ, –bäkˌ [key], 1917–2006, American basketball coach and executive, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. As coach of the Boston Celtics (1950–66), he built the l...

kookaburra

(Encyclopedia)kookaburra ko͝okˈəbûrˌə [key], common name for a squat, long-tailed Australian kingfisher, Dacelo novaeguineae. It is one of the largest birds of the family Alcedinidae (kingfisher family). Beca...

lyrebird

(Encyclopedia)lyrebird, common name for Australian passerine birds named for the appearance of the tail plumage of the male superb lyrebird, Menura novaehollandiae, when displayed during courtship. There are only t...