Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) toucan to͞okănˈ, to͞oˈkän [key], perching bird of the New World tropics, related to the woodpeckers. Toucans vary in size from the jay-sized toucanets to the 24-in. (62-cm) tocos of the Amazon b...

(Encyclopedia) trefoil trēˈfoil [key] [O.Fr.,=three-leaf], in botany, name for several plants, chiefly of the pulse family, having trifoliate leaves. Best known of the trefoils is clover. The bird's-foot trefoil (...

(Encyclopedia) Williston, Samuel Wendell, 1851–1918, American paleontologist and entomologist, b. Boston, grad. Kansas State Agricultural College (B.S., 1872) and Yale (M.D., 1880; Ph.D., 1885). He taught at Yale ...

(Encyclopedia) Gillespie, Dizzy (John Birks Gillespie) gəlĕsˈpē [key], 1917–93, American jazz musician and composer, b. Cheraw, S.C. He began to play the trumpet at 15 and later studied harmony and theory at L...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Structure of a bird feather feathers, outgrowths of the skin, constituting the plumage of birds. Feathers grow only along certain definite tracts (pterylae), which vary in different groups of ...

(Encyclopedia) ovum ōˈvəm [key], in biology, specialized plant or animal sex cell, also called the egg, or egg cell. It is the female sex cell, or female gamete; the male gamete is the sperm. The study of the ovu...

(Encyclopedia) Lyra līˈrə [key] [Lat.,=the lyre], northern constellation lying S of Draco, E of Hercules, and W of Cygnus. Although many civilizations represented it as a bird, it was also depicted as a tortoise....

(Encyclopedia) nightingale, common name for a migratory Old World bird of the family Turdidae (thrush family), celebrated for its vocal powers. The common nightingale of England and Western Europe, Luscinia megarhyn...

(Encyclopedia) meadowlark, common North American meadow bird of the family Icteridae, also called meadow starling. Unlike other members of the family, which comprises blackbirds, grackles, orioles, and others, the m...

(Encyclopedia) Pinnacles National Park, c.26,000 acres (10,500 hectares), in the Gabilan Mts. of the Coast Ranges, W central Calif.; est. as a national monument 1980, designated a national park 2013. Pinnacles featu...