Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Imandra ēˈməndrə [key], lake, 340 sq mi (881 sq km), NW European Russia, on the Kola Peninsula S of Murmansk. Deeply indented, it contains some 140 islands and receives about 20 large rivers. It e...

(Encyclopedia) Hampshire swine, breed of swine that originated in S England and was introduced to the United States in the early 1800s. Major improvement of the breed took place in the state of Kentucky. Hampshire s...

(Encyclopedia) smaltite smôlˈtīt [key], opaque tin-white to steel-gray mineral of the pyrite group, a compound of cobalt and arsenic. It occurs in massive form, occasionally in crystals (cubes) of the isometric s...

(Encyclopedia) Wayland Smith, in English folklore, a skillful blacksmith and great armor maker, whose forge was near the White Horse (Oxfordshire). He appears in the Old English Beowulf and Deor and in Sir Walter Sc...

(Encyclopedia) Poland China swine, oldest breed of swine to have originated in the United States and one of the most popular. A number of strains have contributed to the development of this breed, notably the Irish ...

(Encyclopedia) noddy, tropical tern including five species in the genus Anous. The name noddy is said to derive from their easy familiarity with man. Noddies are web-footed seabirds with long wings (though shorter t...

(Encyclopedia) Avedon, Richard, 1923–2004, American photographer, b. New York City. Son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, he studied philosophy at Columbia, served in the photographic section of the U.S. Merchant Mari...

(Encyclopedia) O'Neill, Paul Henry, 1935–2020, American business executive and government official, b. St. Louis, Mo., grad. Fresno State College (B.A.) and Indiana Univ. (M.P.A.). A Republican, O'Neill began his ...

(Encyclopedia) azalea əzālˈyə [key] [Gr.,=dry], any species of the genus Rhododendron, North American and Asian shrubs of the family Ericaceae (heath family) that are distinguished by the usually deciduous leave...

(Encyclopedia) piculet pĭkˈyələt [key], common name for a small bird of the family Picidae, which includes the woodpecker and the wryneck. Like the true woodpeckers, piculets are large-headed and have long, stic...