Qianlong: Contributions to the arts of Qianlong: …to the beautification of the Yuanmingyuan near Beijing. He was to reside there more and more often, and he considered the ensemble formed by its numerous pavilions, lakes, and gardens as the imperial residence par excellence. He increased the estate and erected new buildings. At his request, several Jesuit missionaries…

phlox: Major species: Summer phlox, also called fall phlox (Phlox paniculata), sometimes reaches more than 1.5 metres (5 feet) in height on straight stiff stems topped by reddish purple to white fragrant large flat flower heads. It grows in rich moist soils. Annual phlox (P. drummondii) is a…

Delmer Daves: Later films: …most notable of which was A Summer Place (1959), the biggest hit of Daves’s career. Based on Sloan Wilson’s novel, it was considered somewhat controversial for its look at adultery and premarital sex. Other films from that time included Parrish (1961), Susan Slade (1961), and Rome Adventure (1962).

Antonio Banderas: Later films: The Legend of Zorro and Pain and Glory: …camino de los ingleses (Summer Rain), an adaptation of an Antonio Soler novel about a group of teenage boys who have a memorable summer vacation. In 2010 he portrayed a dissatisfied art-gallery owner in Woody Allen’s light relationship drama You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Banderas worked again…

savory: The most-common culinary species is summer savory (Satureja hortensis), an annual shrubby herb that grows well in warm climates. The square stems are covered with fine trichomes (plant hairs) and are sometimes tinged with purple. The linear gray-green leaves are arranged oppositely and are about 2.5 cm (1 inch) in…

Judy Blume: Novels for adults and campaigns against censorship: (1978), Smart Women (1983), Summer Sisters (1998), and In the Unlikely Event (2015). She collected letters from young readers for the book Letters to Judy: What Your Kids Wish They Could Tell You (1986). Proceeds from that book and select others went to the Kids Fund, which she established…

dormancy: Homoiotherms and heterotherms: …summer; such hibernation is called estivation. As a means of avoiding environmental stresses, hibernation and estivation are not common devices among warm-blooded animals and they are far less common among birds than among mammals.

snowflake: …spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum) and summer snowflake (L. aestivum), are cultivated as garden flowers. The plants are closely related to snowdrops (genus Galanthus) and typically emerge from bulbs in early spring.

summer solstice, the two moments during the year when the path of the Sun in the sky is farthest north in the Northern Hemisphere (June 20 or 21) or farthest south in the Southern Hemisphere (December 21 or 22). At the summer solstice, the Sun travels the longest path through the sky, and that day

squash: Summer squashes: Summer squashes, such as zucchini, globe squash, pattypan, and yellow crookneck squash, are quick-growing, small-fruited, nontrailing or bush varieties of Cucurbita pepo. Plants are upright and spreading, 45 to 75 cm (18 to 30 inches) high, and produce a great diversity of fruit forms, from…

summer theatre, in American theatre, productions staged during the summer months (the off-season for professional theatre) by professional touring companies at theatres generally located near resort areas. Usually featuring a well-known star, summer-theatre plays are often Broadway hits of previous

Charles Walters: Summer Stock (1950) paired Garland and Kelly, with Eddie Bracken and Phil Silvers providing able comic support; “Get Happy” later became a standard for Garland. In 1951 Walters directed his first nonmusical, Three Guys Named Mike (1951); Jane Wyman starred as a stewardess being courted…

Douglas Sirk: Hollywood films of the 1940s: …Metro Goldwyn Mayer; the second, Summer Storm (1944), was a sensitive adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s only full-length novel, The Shooting Party, with George Sanders and Linda Darnell.

Clethra: alnifolia, commonly known as sweet-pepper bush, or summer sweet, occurs on the eastern Coastal Plain and grows about 1 to 3 metres (3 to 10 feet) tall. Its foliage turns yellow or orange in the fall. C. acuminata, commonly called cinnamon clethra, occurs in mountainous and hilly regions of…

tanager: …the scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea), summer tanager (P. rubra), and western tanager (P. ludoviciana). A less showy bird, the hepatic tanager (P. flava), has a greater breeding range: from southern Arizona to central Argentina. The most striking tropical genus is Tangara: about 50 small species sometimes called callistes. An example…

summer theatre, in American theatre, productions staged during the summer months (the off-season for professional theatre) by professional touring companies at theatres generally located near resort areas. Usually featuring a well-known star, summer-theatre plays are often Broadway hits of previous

Daylight Saving Time, system for uniformly advancing clocks, so as to extend daylight hours during conventional waking time in the summer months. In countries in the Northern Hemisphere, clocks are usually set ahead one hour in late March or in April and are set back one hour in late October or

Pamela Hansford Johnson: …Avenue of Stone (1947), and A Summer to Decide (1948), a trilogy that follows the fortunes of a group of friends from the 1920s to the end of the 1940s.

Lois Lowry: First books and the Anastasia series: Her first juvenile novel, A Summer to Die (1977), loosely mirrors the author’s experience of losing her sister, as it tells the story of a teenage girl dealing with her sibling’s leukemia. It was a success, winning the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award. Lowry continued to weave bits…

Joanne Woodward: …first for her work in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973), in which she played a depressed housewife who suffers a midlife crisis when her mother dies. The second nomination came later, for her role in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990), a film set in the 1930s that focuses on the…

angiosperm: Secondary vascular system: …wood (spring wood) and the late wood (summer wood); early wood is less dense because the cells are larger and their walls are thinner. Although the transition of early wood to late wood within a growth ring may be obscure, that demarcation between the adjacent late wood of one ring…

X Games: The Summer X Games typically feature skateboarding, BMX, and motocross, and the Winter X Games feature snowboarding, skiing, and snowmobiling. Athletes from around the world compete in these multiday events for a chance to win gold, silver, and bronze medals, along with prize money. In 2026…

Donna Summer was an American singer-songwriter who was considered the “Queen of Disco” but also successful in rhythm and blues, rock, funk, and pop. An admirer of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, LaDonna Gaines sang in church and later in clubs in Boston. At age 18 she joined the German production of

forestry: Occurrence and distribution: …are made up of the summer-green trees of North America, northern Europe, and the temperate regions of Asia and South America. Characteristic trees are oaks (Quercus species), beeches (Fagus and Nothofagus), ash trees (Fraxinus), birches

Ariana DeBose: Career: …starred as Disco Donna in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, for which she received several award nominations, including for a Tony Awards.

John Madden: …was paired with play-by-play announcer Pat Summerall, with whom Madden would form a 21-year partnership that made the pair arguably the most famous sports broadcasting duo of all time; the two moved to the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1994. Madden’s idiosyncratic commentary—which included a willingness to explicate the most complicated…

John Madden: …was paired with play-by-play announcer Pat Summerall, with whom Madden would form a 21-year partnership that made the pair arguably the most famous sports broadcasting duo of all time; the two moved to the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1994. Madden’s idiosyncratic commentary—which included a willingness to explicate the most complicated…

Susie Wiles is an American political consultant who serves as White House chief of staff (2025– ) in the second administration of Pres. Donald Trump. She is the first woman to hold the post. Wiles previously worked on a number of Republican campaigns and was considered the architect of Trump’s

Summerhill School, experimental primary and secondary coeducational boarding school in Leiston, Suffolk, Eng. Founded in 1921, it is famous for the revolutionary educational theories of its headmaster, A.S. Neill. The teaching methods and curriculum are flexible, and the accent is on contemporary

Michael Chabon: He followed with Summerland (2002), an expansive young adult novel that features a hero who must save his father (and the world) from the apocalypse by winning a game of baseball against a cast of tricksters drawn from American folklore.

Las Vegas: City layout: …is the planned community of Summerlin, partly outside the city limits. Built on land that was originally purchased by the wealthy industrialist, aviator, and motion-picture producer Howard Hughes in the 1950s, Summerlin was later developed beginning in 1990. About half of Las Vegas’s population lives in single-family homes located in…

Sir Henry Cole: …competition that resulted in “Summerly’s” tea service, designed by Cole and manufactured by Minton’s pottery works. Cole explained that its design “had as much beauty and ornament as is consistent with cheapness.” Much thought was given to fitting form to function. The tea service sold well, and in 1847…

Sir Henry Cole was an English public servant, art patron, and educator who is significant in the history of industrial design for his recognition of the importance of combining art and industry. At the age of 15 Cole started clerking for the public-records historian, and eventually he became

Thomas Nashe: …successful works were his entertainment Summers Last Will and Testament (1592, published 1600); his picaresque novel The Unfortunate Traveller; or, The Life of Jacke Wilton; Dido, Queen of Carthage (1594; with Christopher Marlowe); and Nashes Lenten Stuffe (1599). The Unfortunate Traveller is a brutal and realistic tale of adventure narrated…

the Police: Unlike most of their punk contemporaries, the Police were skilled musicians when they came together in London in 1977.

Les Paul: …to perform—mostly with his wife, Mary Ford (original name Colleen Summers; b. July 7, 1924, Pasadena, California—d. September 30, 1977, Los Angeles, California)—Paul pioneered the development of multitrack recording and is credited with having invented the first eight-track tape recorder and the technique of overdubbing.

Emma A. Summers was an American businesswoman who became known as the Oil Queen of California for her role in the Los Angeles oil boom at the turn of the 20th century. Summers graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music and became a piano teacher. She moved west to Texas and then to Los

Lawrence Summers was one of the main architects of U.S. economic policy in the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st. In addition to serving as a key economic adviser to two Democratic presidents, he served as chief economist of the World Bank and president of Harvard

Lawrence Summers was one of the main architects of U.S. economic policy in the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st. In addition to serving as a key economic adviser to two Democratic presidents, he served as chief economist of the World Bank and president of Harvard

coven: …covens was also accepted by Montague Summers, a well-known Roman Catholic writer on witchcraft in the 1920s and 1930s, and more recently by Pennethorne Hughes in his Witchcraft (1952, 1965). Many students of witchcraft, however, dismiss the Murray theory of covens as unfounded and based on insufficient evidence. Nonetheless, 20th-century…

Summerside, city, seat (1876) of Prince county, on the southern coast of Prince Edward Island, Canada. The city lies along Bedeque Bay and Northumberland Strait, 38 miles (61 km) west of Charlottetown. Settled in 1780 as Green’s Shore by Daniel Green (a Quaker loyalist from Pennsylvania, U.S.), it

Edith Summerskill was a British politician and physician who was one of the longest serving female MPs. Following in the footsteps of her father, Edith Summerskill studied medicine at Charing Cross Hospital, a highly unusual career path for women at the time. She qualified as a doctor in 1924 and

Edith Summerskill was a British politician and physician who was one of the longest serving female MPs. Following in the footsteps of her father, Edith Summerskill studied medicine at Charing Cross Hospital, a highly unusual career path for women at the time. She qualified as a doctor in 1924 and

Esther Summerson, fictional character, the strong, motherly heroine of the novel Bleak House (1852–53) by Charles

Summersville, town, seat of Nicholas county, south-central West Virginia, U.S. It lies near the Gauley River, 45 miles (72 km) east of Charleston. Founded on Peters Creek in 1824, it was named for Judge Lewis Summers, who introduced the bill that created Nicholas county. During the American Civil

Wilco: The 1999 Wilco album Summerteeth found the band shifting its sound again into lush orchestral pop, a gambit employed in part to disguise some of Tweedy’s most twisted and tortured lyrics, which were about a disintegrating relationship. The making of the 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot proved to be…

Summertime, American film drama, released in 1955, featuring Katharine Hepburn in a timeless love story set in Venice. Director David Lean’s simple film—adapted from the play The Time of the Cuckoo by Arthur Laurents—centres on a spinster (played by Hepburn) who is taking her dream trip to Venice,

Pius XII: Early pontificate: …fray, and his first encyclical, Summi pontificatus (“On the Limitations of the Authority of the State”), issued October 20, 1939, reflected this diplomatic course.

Pleasant Colony: Summing won the race by a neck over Highland Blade, who finished a length and a half in front of Pleasant Colony.

W. Somerset Maugham: In The Summing Up (1938) and A Writer’s Notebook (1949) Maugham explains his philosophy of life as a resigned atheism and a certain skepticism about the extent of man’s innate goodness and intelligence; it is this that gives his work its astringent cynicism.

Summit, village, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. Summit is a suburb of Chicago, located about 13 miles (21 km) southwest of downtown. It lies on the Des Plaines River, straddling the watershed between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Named for the ridge dividing the watershed, it

diplomacy: Summit diplomacy: After a lull the tensions of the 1930s revived conference diplomacy, which continued during World War II. Thereafter, summit meetings between heads of government became the norm as technology again quickened the tempo of diplomacy. In the 1930s statesmen began to telephone each…

Sunshine Skyway Bridge: History: …9, 1980, when the freighter Summit Venture collided with one of the western support columns of the southbound bridge. The impact caused the collapse of 1,200 feet (366 meters) of the span, killing 35 people who had been in vehicles on the bridge.

Pat Summitt was an American collegiate women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee (1974–2012) who led the squad to eight National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996–98, and 2007–08) and compiled more wins (1,098) than any other Division I

John Betjeman: …left Oxford were detailed in Summoned by Bells (1960), blank verse interspersed with lyrics.

The Summoner’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Told in retaliation for the Friar’s unflattering portrait of a summoner, this earthy tale describes a hypocritical friar’s attempt to wheedle a gift from an ailing benefactor. The angry man offers the friar a

summons, in law, document issued by a court ordering a specific person to appear at a specific time for some specific purpose. It is issued either directly to the person or to a law officer who must carry out the instructions. Often the purpose of a citation or summons is to require a person to

American literature: Southern fiction: …The Old Forest (1985) and A Summons to Memphis (1986).

John Grisham: Other novels: …output of legal fiction, with The Summons (2002), The Last Juror (2004), The Appeal (2008), The Litigators (2011), The Racketeer (2012), and Gray Mountain (2014) among his later works in the genre. In Sycamore Row (2013)—a follow-up to A Time to Kill, centering on the lawyer from that

history of logic: Developments in the 13th and early 14th centuries: …compendia are often called “summulae” (“little summaries”), and their authors “summulists.” Among the most important of the summulists are: (1) Peter of Spain (also known as Petrus Hispanus; later Pope John XXI), who wrote a Tractatus more commonly known as Summulae logicales (“Little Summaries of Logic”) probably in the…

history of logic: Developments in the 13th and early 14th centuries: Buridan’s Summulae de dialectica (“Little Summaries of Dialectic”), intended for instructional use at Paris, was largely an adaptation of Peter of Spain’s Summulae logicales. He appears to have been the first to use Peter of Spain’s text in this way. Originally meant as the last treatise…

history of logic: Developments in the 13th and early 14th centuries: …Tractatus more commonly known as Summulae logicales (“Little Summaries of Logic”) probably in the early 1230s; it was used as a textbook in some late medieval universities; (2) Lambert of Auxerre, who wrote a Logica sometime between 1253 and 1257; and (3) William of Sherwood, who produced Introductiones in logicam…

Western architecture: Germany and central Europe: …Schadaeus’s guide to the cathedral, Summum Argentoratensium Templum (1617; “Strasbourg’s Finest Church”) was the first illustrated guidebook ever devoted to a single medieval building and, in spite of its Latin title, was written in German. Other 17th- and early 18th-century histories and guides—and there were many—give ample evidence of a…

ethics: St. Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastics: …an ultimate end, or goal—a summum bonum—at which all human action is directed; and, like Aristotle, he conceived of this end as necessarily connected with happiness. This conception was Christianized, however, by the idea that happiness is to be found in the love of God. Thus, a person seeks to…

road: The Roman roads: …very important roads, (4) the summum dorsum, a wearing surface of large stone slabs at least 6 inches deep. The total thickness thus varied from 3 to 6 feet. The width of the Appian Way in its ultimate development was 35 feet. The two-way, heavily crowned central carriageway was 15…

the Smiths: Solo careers and controversies: Marr teamed with Bernard Sumner of New Order in the supergroup Electronic. Although Marr and Sumner had initially conceived their partnership to be temporary, the success of the 1989 single “Getting Away with It” inspired the pair to record three well-received dance albums. More than a decade after…

Charles Sumner was a U.S. statesman of the American Civil War period dedicated to human equality and to the abolition of slavery. A graduate of Harvard Law School (1833), Sumner crusaded for many causes, including prison reform, world peace, and Horace Mann’s educational reforms. It was in his long

Plains Wars: Early conflicts: Edwin V. Sumner encountered an equal force of mounted Cheyenne near the south fork of the Solomon River, Kansas Territory. The Cheyenne were eager to engage in battle, assured that magical waters would keep them safe from their white opponents’ bullets. As both sides thundered…

Sting is a British singer and songwriter known both for being the front man of the band the Police and for his successful solo career that followed. His musical style is distinguished by its intermingling of pop, jazz, world music, and other genres. Gordon Sumner grew up in a Roman Catholic family

Sting is a British singer and songwriter known both for being the front man of the band the Police and for his successful solo career that followed. His musical style is distinguished by its intermingling of pop, jazz, world music, and other genres. Gordon Sumner grew up in a Roman Catholic family

Helen Laura Sumner Woodbury was an American economist whose investigative work centred largely on historical and contemporary labour issues, particularly in relation to women and children. Helen Sumner grew up in Wisconsin and Colorado. In 1898 she graduated from Wellesley (Massachusetts) College,

British Leyland Motor Corporation, Ltd.: James Sumner of Leyland, Lancashire, built his first steam-driven wagon in 1884; and in 1896 he allied with the wealthy Spurrier family to set up the Lancashire Steam Motor Company, renamed Leyland Motors Ltd. in 1907, after its first experiments with gasoline engines. Except briefly…

James Batcheller Sumner was an American biochemist and corecipient, with John Howard Northrop and Wendell Meredith Stanley, of the 1946 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Sumner was the first to crystallize an enzyme, an achievement that revealed the protein nature of enzymes. After crystallizing the

navigation: Modern navigation: …computations had been introduced by Thomas H. Sumner of the United States in 1837 and Marcq Saint-Hilaire of France in 1875. These astronomical determinations were supplemented by dead reckoning, which had been made more trustworthy by the continued development of compasses and logs.

William Graham Sumner was a U.S. sociologist and economist, prolific publicist of Social Darwinism. Like the British philosopher Herbert Spencer, Sumner, who taught at Yale from 1872 to 1909, expounded in many essays his firm belief in laissez-faire, individual liberty, and the innate inequalities

Sumo, Mesoamerican Indian people of the eastern coastal plain of Nicaragua, closely related to the neighbouring Miskito people. Their language is thought by some authorities to be related to the Chibchan family. The Sumo are agricultural, their staple crop being sweet manioc (yuca). They also grow

sumo, style of Japanese wrestling in which weight, size, and strength are of the greatest importance, though speed and suddenness of attack are also useful. The object is to propel the opponent out of a ring about 15 feet (4.6 metres) in diameter or to force him to touch the ground with any part of

Merv Hughes is an Australian cricket player who was one of the most dominant fast bowlers in international cricket during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hughes grew up in a working-class suburb of Melbourne, where he played cricket and Australian rules football. He worked briefly in a factory

Suo Masayuki: Suo wrote and directed Shiko funjatta (1992; Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t), an amusing tale about a young man forced to participate in his university’s lamentably bad sumo wrestling team. Shiko funjatta won a Japanese Academy Award for best film in 1992 and was a surprise hit at the Cannes…

sump pump, device that removes accumulations of water or other liquids from a sump pit, the lowest point in a drainage system. If the sump pit is wet only intermittently (e.g., the basement sump of a house), a self-priming pump is used, generally one equipped with a mechanism to start it

Indonesia: The rise of nationalism: …youth organizations issued the historic Youth Pledge (Sumpah Pemuda), whereby they vowed to recognize only one Indonesian motherland, one Indonesian people, and one Indonesian language. It was a landmark event in the country’s history and also is considered the founding moment of the Indonesian language.

sumptuary law, any law designed to restrict excessive personal expenditures in the interest of preventing extravagance and luxury. The term denotes regulations restricting extravagance in food, drink, dress, and household equipment, usually on religious or moral grounds. Such laws have proved

Native American: Archaic cultures: …bear plentiful seeds) such as sumpweed (Iva annua) and lamb’s-quarters (Chenopodium album). Northern Americans independently domesticated several kinds of flora, including a variety of squash (c. 3000 bce) unrelated to the those of Mesoamerica or South America, sunflowers Helianthus annuus (c. 3000 bce), and goosefoot Chenopodium berlandieri (c. 2500 bce).

Sumqayıt, city, eastern Azerbaijan. Sumqayıt lies at the mouth of the Sumqayıt River as it enters the Caspian Sea, on the northern side of the Abşeron Peninsula. Founded in 1944 as a suburb of Baku and achieving city status in 1949, Sumqayıt grew rapidly as a major chemical and metallurgical

Sumra family, dynasty under which the Lower Sindh (in present-day Pakistan) appears to have gained its independence in the 11th century. The house is given an Arab pedigree by its chroniclers, but historians believe it to be of Rajput origin. The Sumras ruled with relative success for more than

Sumter, county, central South Carolina, U.S. It is bordered to the west by the Wateree River, which flows into the Congaree River; the narrow far eastern border is the Lynches River. The county is also drained by the Black and Pocotaligo rivers. Shaw Air Force Base, Manchester State Forest,

Sumter, city, seat (1798) of Sumter county, east-central South Carolina, U.S. Settled in 1785, it was named Sumterville (shortened in 1856) in honour of the American Revolutionary War general Thomas Sumter. In an agricultural area and once a typical cotton plantation village, Sumter is now

Charleston: …1860, and the capture of Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, by Confederates (April 12–14, 1861) precipitated the American Civil War. The city was blockaded by Union land and sea forces from July 10, 1863, to February 18, 1865, the siege ending only when General William Tecumseh Sherman’s advance forced the…

Thomas Sumter was a legislator and officer in the American Revolution, remembered for his leadership of troops against British forces in North and South Carolina, where he earned the sobriquet “the Carolina Gamecock.” Sumter served in the French and Indian War and later moved to South Carolina.

Sumter, city, seat (1798) of Sumter county, east-central South Carolina, U.S. Settled in 1785, it was named Sumterville (shortened in 1856) in honour of the American Revolutionary War general Thomas Sumter. In an agricultural area and once a typical cotton plantation village, Sumter is now

Babylon: History: bce by the Amorite king Sumuabum, whose successors consolidated its status. The sixth and best-known of the Amorite dynasts, Hammurabi (1792–50 bce), conquered the surrounding city-states and raised Babylon to the capital of a kingdom comprising all of southern Mesopotamia and part of Assyria (northern Iraq). Its political importance, together…

Sumy, city, northeastern Ukraine, on the Psel River. Although a settlement existed there in the 8th and 9th centuries, Sumy was founded as a fortress in 1652 and as a town in 1780. Among survivals of its past are the Cathedral of the Transfiguration and the Church of the Resurrection, both 18th

Sun, star around which Earth and the other components of the solar system revolve. It is the dominant body of the system, constituting more than 99 percent of its entire mass. The Sun is the source of an enormous amount of energy, a portion of which provides Earth with the light and heat necessary

The Sun Also Rises, first major novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1926. Titled Fiesta in England, the novel captures the moods, feelings, and attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast-living group of disillusioned expatriates in postwar France and Spain. The Sun Also Rises follows a group of young

Henry King: Later films: …1957 King revisited Hemingway’s work, adapting the novel The Sun Also Rises. King’s solid production was especially notable for featuring Errol Flynn in one of his final performances.

heliozoan: …often referred to as the sun animalcule. Acanthocystis turfacea is a similar species commonly called the green sun animalcule because its body is coloured by harmless symbiotic green algae (zoochlorellae). Actinosphaerium species are multinucleate, often reaching a diameter of 1 mm (0.04 inch).

sun bear, (Helarctos malayanus), the smallest bear in the world, found in Southeast Asian forests. It weighs only 27–65 kg (59–143 pounds) and grows 1–1.2 metres (3.3–4 feet) long with a 5-cm (2-inch) tail. Its large forepaws bear long curved claws, which it uses for tearing or digging in its

Sun Belt, region comprising 15 southern states in the United States and extending from Virginia and Florida in the southeast through Nevada in the southwest, and also including southern California. Between 1970 and 1990 the South grew in population by 36 percent and the West by 51 percent, both

sun bittern, (species Eurypyga helias), slender bird of tropical America, the sole member of the family Eurypygidae (order Gruiformes). It has strikingly patterned wings, which the male spreads in courtship and threat displays. The sun bittern is about 43 cm (17 inches) long, with full wings and a

Texas: Sports and recreation: …Cotton Bowl in Dallas, the Sun Bowl in El Paso, and the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.