Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Baskin, Leonard, 1922–2000, American sculptor, graphic artist, and teacher, b. New Brunswick, N.J. In sculptural and graphic works that are figurative in style, Baskin's images of a corrupt, bloated...

(Encyclopedia) sunbittern, common name for a graceful, stout-bodied, bitternlike bird, Eurypyga helias. It is named for its wing markings, an orange-chestnut shield set in an orange-buff circle, which looks like a s...

(Encyclopedia) pratincole prătˈənkōlˌ [key], common name for a large-winged shore bird including seven species in the subfamily Glareolinae of the family Glareolidae. Swift and graceful flyers, their sharply po...

(Encyclopedia) proverb, short statement of wisdom or advice that has passed into general use. More homely than aphorisms, proverbs generally refer to common experience and are often expressed in metaphor, alliterati...

(Encyclopedia) veneer vənērˈ [key], thin leaf of wood applied with glue to a panel or frame of solid wood. The art of veneer developed with early civilization. It produces richly grained effects cheaply and is us...

(Encyclopedia) Point Reyes National Seashore rāˈĭs [key], 71,068 acres (28,772 hectares), W Calif.; est. 1962. Included in the area are steep bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, lagoons, and esteros enclosed by...

(Encyclopedia) Burroughs, John, 1837–1921, American naturalist and author, b. Roxbury, N.Y.; son of a farmer. He was a journalist, a treasury clerk in Washington, and a bank examiner, before settling in 1874 on a ...

(Encyclopedia) game laws, restrictions on the hunting or capture of wild game, whether bird, beast, or fish. After the Norman Conquest (1066), England enacted stringent game laws, known as the Forest Laws, which mad...

(Encyclopedia) Isherwood, Christopher ishˈərwo͝od [key], 1904–86, British-American author. After the appearance of his first novel, All the Conspirators (1928), Isherwood went to Germany. The four years he spen...

(Encyclopedia) Housman, A. E. (Alfred Edward Housman) housˈmən [key], 1859–1936, English poet and scholar, whose verse exerted a strong influence on later poets. He left Oxford without a degree because he had fa...