Owl, Fossil history

The earliest recognizable fossil strigiform is Protostrix from the Eocene of Wyoming. A number of genera from the later Tertiary have been assigned to Recent strigiform families. Some early owls reached far greater size than their modern descendents. A giant barn owl, about twice the size of the modern Tyto alba, inhabited Puerto Rico in the Pleistocene. Another

Saarland

Also called �Saar, � Land (state) in the southwestern portion of Germany. It is bounded by France on the south, Luxembourg on the west, and the Land of Rhineland-Palatinate on the north and east. It covers an area of 992 square miles (2,569 square km). The capital is Saarbr�cken, which lies along the Saar River.

Macclesfield

Town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Cheshire, England. The borough includes a narrow strip of the Pennines in the east that is part of the Peak District National Park. The principal town, Macclesfield, is the centre of the silk industry. The manufacture of silk-covered buttons began in the 16th century, and silk throwing was introduced in

Abaza Language

Language spoken primarily in the western part of the Caucasus Mountains and in northeastern Turkey. Abaza is related to Abkhaz, Adyghian, Kabardian (Circassian), and Ubykh, which constitute the Abkhazo-Adyghian, or Northwest Caucasian, language group. These languages are noted for the great number of distinctive consonants and the limited number of distinctive

Spontaneous Fission

Type of radioactive decay in which certain unstable nuclei of heavier elements split into two nearly equal fragments (nuclei of lighter elements) and liberate a large amount of energy. Spontaneous fission, discovered (1941) by the Russian physicists G.N. Flerov and K.A. Petrzhak in uranium-238, is observable in many nuclear species of mass number 230 or more. Among these nuclides,

Cilea, Francesco

While studying at the Naples Conservatory, Cilea produced an opera, Gina, which secured for him a commission from a publisher. His first important work, L'Arlesiana (1897), after Alphonse Daudet, was the vehicle for the tenor Enrico Caruso's first success. Cilea's

Cabot Strait

Channel (60 miles [97 km] wide) between southwestern Newfoundland and northern Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, eastern Canada. An important international shipping lane, it connects the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the Atlantic Ocean. The strait was named for John Cabot, the Italian navigator who, sponsored by the English king Henry VII, explored the area in the late 15th

Luzon

Gon�alves, Ant�nio Aur�lio

Gon�alves attended the University of Lisbon and later taught history and philosophy at the Liceu Gil Eanes in S�o Vicente. All of Gon�alves' noveletas (his coinage for novella) and other

Zamboanga City

City and port, western Mindanao, Philippines. It is a busy port strategically located on the southwestern tip of the Zamboanga Peninsula, on Basilan Strait and sheltered by Basilan Island. The immediate coastal lowlands are narrow, with low, rugged hills located a short distance inland. Zamboanga's Spanish-style architecture, fine beaches, and mountainous backdrop

Ch�tellerault

Town, Vienne d�partement, Poitou-Charentes r�gion, west-central France. It lies north-northeast of Poitiers, on the main road from Paris to Bordeaux. Situated on the Vienne River, it derives its name from a 10th-century castle built by the 2nd Viscount Airaud of the district. The Henri IV bridge over the Vienne River was built between 1575 and 1611. The 16th-century Maison des Sybilles,

Itacoatiara

City, northeastern Amazonas estado (�state�), northwestern Brazil. Formerly known as Serpa, the settlement lies on the left (north) bank of the Amazon River, downstream from its junction with the Madeira River and approximately 110 miles (180 km) east of Manaus, the state capital. River steamers and hydroplanes utilize the facilities at Itacoatiara, which ships rubber, Brazil

Nelson, Baby Face

From petty crime Nelson graduated into labour racketeering, working for Al Capone (1929 - 31) and other bootleg bosses; he was let go, however, proving too violent even for them. He then turned to bank robberies, joining with John Dillinger on two occasions

Narai

Narai was a son of King Prasat Thong by a queen who was a daughter of King Song Tham, and he came to the throne after violent palace upheavals had cut short the reigns of his elder brother and his uncle.

Koda Rohan

Rohan's early education was strong in the Japanese and Chinese classics, and although he was graduated from a technical school in 1884, before long

'amiriyah, Al-

Formerly �Maryut� industrial district of al-Iskandariyah (Alexandria) muhafazah (governorate), northern Egypt. The centre of the 913-sq-mi (2,365-sq-km) district, which adjoins Lake Maryut (Mareotis) on the southwest, is al-'Amiriyah town. This town was originally a small gypsum-mining centre on the desert roads leading south to Cairo and west along the coast to Marsa Matruh. Al-'Amiriyah's modern development began in

Tiet�j�

The principal religious specialist of the Baltic Finns, functioning in the tradition of the Finno-Ugric shaman. Operating in a more complex, agricultural society than his more primitive counterparts, such as the Sami noiade, who worked in a hunting and fishing society, the tiet�j�-type specialist differed from his predecessor chiefly in the number of roles he mastered,

Tallemant Des R�aux, G�d�on

The son of a Huguenot banker, Tallemant took degrees in civil and canonical law at Paris, but he abandoned his position as conseiller au parlement and began to frequent literary circles. In 1646 he married his cousin �lisabeth de Rambouillet, thus gaining

Roper River

River in Northern Territory, Australia, formed by the confluence of Waterhouse River and Beswick Creek east of Mataranka and flowing east for 250 miles (400 km) to Limmen Bight on the Gulf of Carpentaria. It marks the southern limit of the rugged region known as Arnhem Land. The flow of the river system, which drains an area of 23,500 square miles (60,860 square km), increases greatly during

Burakumin

Although the class was officially abolished in 1871 (under the Emancipation Act of the Meiji period),

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Influence of Jean de La Fontaine

The fable has normally been of limited length, however, and the form reached its zenith in 17th-century France, at the court of Louis XIV, especially in the work of Jean de La Fontaine. He published his Fables in two segments: the first, his initial volume of 1668, and the second, an accretion of �Books� of fables appearing over the next 25 years. The 1668 Fables follow the Aesopian pattern,

'abbasid Dynasty

The name is derived from that of the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, al-'Abbas (died c. 653), of the Hashimite clan of the Quraysh tribe in Mecca. From c. 718, members of his family worked to gain control

Albany, John Stewart, 2nd Duke Of

In 1515, at the request of the Scottish Parliament, he came to Scotland from France.

Lippi, Fra Filippo

Florentine painter in the second generation of Renaissance artists. While exhibiting the strong influence of Masaccio (e.g., in �Madonna and Child,� 1437) and Fra Angelico (e.g., in �Coronation of the Virgin,� c. 1445), his work achieves a distinctive clarity of expression. Legend and tradition surround his unconventional life.

'abdor Rahman Khan

'Abdor Rahman was the son of Afzal Khan, whose father, Dost Mohammad Khan, had established the Barakzai dynasty in Afghanistan. Shir 'Ali's victory in 1869 drove 'Abdor Rahman into

Miner, Myrtilla

Miner was educated at the Clover Street Seminary in Rochester, New York (1840-44), and taught at various schools, including the Newton Female Institute (1846-47) in Whitesville,

Short Story, The �impressionist� story

Several American writers, from Poe to James, were interested in the �impressionist� story that focusses on the impressions registered by events on the characters' minds, rather than the objective reality of the events themselves. In Herman Melville's �Bartleby the Scrivener� (1856) the narrator is a man who unintentionally reveals his own moral weaknesses through his telling

Biblical Literature, The Second Letter of John

II John warns a specific church (or perhaps churches), designated as �the elect lady and her children,� against the influence of the Docetic heresy combatted in I John, whose proponents lured Christians from �following the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father.� In II John, as in the Gospel According to John and I John, the light - darkness images are similar to those

Saigyo

Also called �Sato Norikiyo � Japanese Buddhist priest-poet, one of the greatest masters of the tanka (a traditional Japanese poetic form), whose life and works became the subject matter of many narratives, plays, and puppet dramas. He originally followed his father in a military career, but, like others of his day, he was oppressed by the sense of disaster that overwhelmed Japan as

Accessory

In law, a person who becomes equally guilty in the crime of another by knowingly and voluntarily aiding the criminal prior to or after the crime. An accessory is one kind of accomplice (q.v.), the other being an abettor, who aids the criminal during the act itself.

Wolfram Von Eschenbach

An impoverished Bavarian knight, Wolfram apparently served a succession of Franconian lords: Abensberg, Wildenberg, and Wertheim are among the places he names in his work. He also knew the court of