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blackbird

(Encyclopedia)blackbird, common name in North America of a perching bird allied to the bobolink, the meadow lark, the oriole, and the grackle and belonging to the family Icteridae. The European blackbird, Turdus me...

Norumbega

(Encyclopedia)Norumbega nôrəmbĕgˈə [key], name vaguely used, especially on European maps of the 16th and 17th cent., to indicate a region, a river, or a city on the east coast of North America. Fabulous tales ...

Ilf, Ilya Arnoldovich

(Encyclopedia)Ilf, Ilya Arnoldovich ēlyäˈ ərnôlˈdəvĭch ēlf [key], 1897–1937, Russian humorist whose original name was Ilya Arnoldovich Fainzilberg. In all his writing he collaborated with Yevgeny Petrovi...

Taylor, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Edward, c.1642–1729, American poet and clergyman, b. England, considered America's foremost colonial poet. He immigrated to America in 1668 and graduated from Harvard in 1671. From then unti...

Robertson, William

(Encyclopedia)Robertson, William, 1721–93, Scottish churchman and historian. As moderator (1762–80) of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, he led the moderate party and enforced the right of the sta...

Charlevoix, Pierre François Xavier de

(Encyclopedia)Charlevoix, Pierre François Xavier de pyĕr fräNswäˈ zävyāˈ də shärləvwäˈ [key], 1682–1761, French Jesuit traveler and historian. He taught at the Jesuit college in Quebec and at the Col...

chinchilla

(Encyclopedia)chinchilla chĭnchĭlˈə [key], small burrowing rodent of South America. It lives in colonies at high altitudes (up to 15,000 ft/4,270 m) in the Andes of Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. One of the costlies...

Chocano, José Santos

(Encyclopedia)Chocano, José Santos hōsāˈ sänˈtōs chōkäˈnō [key], 1875–1934, Peruvian poet and one of the leaders of modernismo. During a life of Latin-American wandering, Chocano was closely linked bot...

Glover, Jose

(Encyclopedia)Glover, Jose glŭvˈər [key], d. 1638, English nonconformist minister, generally considered the father of printing in the English colonies of North America. He visited New England c.1634 and on his r...

England, John

(Encyclopedia)England, John, 1786–1842, Irish Roman Catholic churchman in America, b. Cork. He studied, was ordained, and ministered to several parishes in Co. Cork. His parishes were poor ones, but he became wel...