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gopher

(Encyclopedia)gopher or pocket gopher, name for the burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae, found in North America and Central America. The gopher is gray, buff, or dark brown. Its combined head and body length ...

bushmaster

(Encyclopedia)bushmaster, large venomous snake, Lachesis muta, of Central America and N South America. It is a member of the pit viper family, which also includes the rattlesnake. The largest New World snake, it re...

holly

(Encyclopedia)holly, common name for members of the Aquifoliaceae, a family of widely distributed trees and shrubs, most numerous in Central and South America. The evergreen English holly (Ilex aquifolium), the com...

Gage, Thomas, English traveler

(Encyclopedia)Gage, Thomas, d. 1656, English traveler. He went (1612) to Spain to study and became a Dominican. He lived and traveled among the Native populations of Central America from 1625 to 1637, when he retur...

Penutian

(Encyclopedia)Penutian pəno͞oˈshən [key], linguistic family, or stock, of Native Americans of North and Central America. See Native American languages. ...

Fish, Carl Russell

(Encyclopedia)Fish, Carl Russell, 1876–1932, American historian, b. Central Falls, R.I. From 1900 to his death he taught history at the Univ. of Wisconsin. Fish considered the Univ. of Wisconsin the “most democ...

El Niño–Southern Oscillation

(Encyclopedia)El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) ĕl nēnˈyō [key], large-scale climatic fluctuation of the tropical Pacific Ocean and the overlying atmosphere. The El Niño [Span.,=the child] is the South Am...

Muskogean

(Encyclopedia)Muskogean məskōˈgēən [key], branch of Native North American languages belonging to the Hokan-Siouan linguistic family, or stock, of North and Central America. See Native American languages. ...

Hokan-Siouan

(Encyclopedia)Hokan-Siouan hōˈkən-so͞oˈən [key], linguistic stock, or family, whose member languages are spoken by Native Americans in North and Central America. See Native American languages. ...

Iroquoian

(Encyclopedia)Iroquoian ĭrˌəkwoiˈən [key], branch of Native North American languages belonging to the Hokan-Siouan linguistic family, or stock, of North and Central America. See Native American languages. ...