Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Languedoc läNgdôkˈ [key], region and former province, S France, bounded by the foot of the Pyrenees, the upper Garonne River, the Auvergne Mts., the Rhône, and the Mediterranean. It comprises the ...

(Encyclopedia) lark, common name for members of the large family Alaudidae, perching birds of terrestrial habits, chiefly of the Old World and best-known through the skylark, Alauda arvensis. The horned larks belong...

(Encyclopedia) Crow, indigenous people of North America whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages) and who call themselves the Absaroka, or bird ...

(Encyclopedia) Hidalgo ēᵺälˈgō [key], state, 8,058 sq mi (20,870 sq km), central Mexico. Pachuca de Soto is the capital. Cross...

(Encyclopedia) Visayan Islands vĭsīˈən [key], large island group (1990 pop. 13,794,991), c.24,000 sq mi (62,160 sq km), in and around the Visayan Sea, central Philippines. The group includes Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, ...

(Encyclopedia) wampum wämˈpəm [key] [New England Algonquian,=white string of beads], beads or disks made by Native Americans from the shells of mollusks found on the eastern coast or along the larger rivers of No...

(Encyclopedia) Gros Ventre grō văNˈtrə [key] [Fr.,=big belly], name used by the French for two quite distinct Native North American groups. One was the Atsina, a detached band of the Arapaho, whose language belo...

(Encyclopedia) guanaco hwänˈäko [key], wild mammal of the camel family, Lama guanicoe, found on arid plains in the Andes Mts. It is about 31⁄2 ft (105 cm) high at the shoulder, with a long neck; it is brown on ...

(Encyclopedia) Pleistocene epoch plīˈstəsēn [key], 6th epoch of the Cenozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table). According to a classification that considered its depos...

(Encyclopedia) Elizabeth II, 1926–2022, former queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1952–2022), elder daughter and successor of George VI, and Britain's lo...