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woodcreeper

(Encyclopedia)woodcreeper or woodhewer, common names for woodpeckerlike birds of tropical forest and brush, constituting about 50 species in the family Dendrocolaptidae. Supported by their stiff tails, they cling v...

booby

(Encyclopedia)booby, common name for some members of the family Sulidae, large, streamlined sea birds. Tropical and subtropical members of the family are called boobies; those of northern waters are called gannets....

bowerbird

(Encyclopedia)bowerbird, common name for any of several species of birds of the family Ptilonorhynchidae, native to Australia and New Guinea, which build, for courtship display, a bower of sticks or grasses. Usuall...

sporting dog

(Encyclopedia)sporting dog, classification used by breeders and kennel clubs to designate dogs bred for pointing, flushing, and retrieving game. These dogs hunt by air scent—as opposed to most hounds, which are g...

Masefield, John

(Encyclopedia)Masefield, John mās– [key], 1878–1967, English poet. He went to sea as a youth and later spent several years in the United States. In 1897 he returned to England and was on the staff of the Manch...

rhythm, biological

(Encyclopedia)rhythm, biological, or biorhythm, cyclic pattern of physiological changes or changes in activity in living organisms, most often synchronized with daily, monthly, or annual cyclical changes in the env...

Darwin's finches

(Encyclopedia)Darwin's finches or Galapagos finches gəläˈpəgōsˌ [key], species of small perching birds, constituting the subfamily Geospizinae of the tanager family. Not related to the true finches, this grou...

Quebec campaign

(Encyclopedia)Quebec campaign, 1775–76, of the American Revolution. The Continental Congress decided to send an expedition to Canada to protect the northern frontier from British attack and to persuade Canada to ...

oxpecker

(Encyclopedia)oxpecker, common name for an African starling of the genus Buphagus. Also known as tickbirds, oxpeckers have very short legs and sharp claws, which aid them in perching on the backs of large mammals, ...

heron

(Encyclopedia)heron hĕrˈən [key], common name for members of the family Ardeidae, large wading birds including the bittern and the egret, found in most temperate regions but most numerous in tropical and subtrop...