Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

basenji

(Encyclopedia)basenji bəsĕnˈjē [key], breed of medium-sized hound whose origins can be traced back several thousand years to Africa and the courts of the Egyptian pharaohs. It stands about 17 in. (43.2 cm) high...

basset hound

(Encyclopedia)basset hound, breed of short-legged, long-bodied hound developed centuries ago in France. It stands from 12 to 15 in. (30.1–38.1 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 25 to 50 lb (11.3–22.7 kg)...

Afghan hound

(Encyclopedia)Afghan hound ăfˈgăn [key], breed of tall, swift hound originating about 5,000 years ago in ancient Egypt. Its modern ancestors were perfected in the northern part of Afghanistan and introduced into...

border terrier

(Encyclopedia)border terrier, breed of hardy, medium-sized terrier developed in the Border districts of N England in the 18th and 19th cent. It stands about 12 in. (30 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 131�...

mammal

(Encyclopedia)mammal, an animal of the highest class of vertebrates, the Mammalia. The female has mammary glands, which secrete milk for the nourishment of the young after birth. In the majority of mammals the body...

Kirby, William

(Encyclopedia)Kirby, William, 1817–1906, Canadian author, b. England. He was a journalist and civil servant. Besides volumes of verse and tales, he wrote The Golden Dog (1877), also published as Le Chien d'or (18...

Flanagan, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Flanagan, Richard, 1961–, Australian novelist, b. Longford, Tasmania, studied Univ. of Tasmania (grad. 1982), Oxford (Rhodes scholar). Flanagan, whose novels explore the past and present of his nati...

Chadwick, Henry, Anglo-American journalist and popularizer of baseball

(Encyclopedia)Chadwick, Henry, 1824–1908, Anglo-American journalist who helped popularize baseball in the United States, b. Exeter, England. Moving to Brooklyn, N.Y., with his family in 1837, he was a cricket rep...

Anubis

(Encyclopedia)Anubis əno͞oˈbĭs [key], Egyptian god of the dead. He presided over the embalming of the dead and is represented as a jackal-, wolf-, or dog-headed man. ...

Bedlington terrier

(Encyclopedia)Bedlington terrier, breed of long-legged, lithe terrier developed in the eastern Border districts of England in the 19th cent. It stands about 16 in. (40.6 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 22 ...