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  • Recurvirostra (bird)
    any of several large shorebirds belonging to the genus Recurvirostra, family Recurvirostridae. Avocets have boldly contrasting plumage, long bluish legs, and a long black bill upturned at the tip. They inhabit fresh and salt marshes that have areas of open shallow water and mud flats, and they feed by sweeping the bill, held partly open, back and forth in the shallows. Often they wade toge...
  • Recurvirostra americana (bird)
    ...avosetta) has the crown and hindneck black, the wings black and white. It breeds in central Asia and in scattered localities in Europe. Many winter in Africa’s Rift Valley. The slightly larger American avocet (R. americana), which is about 45 cm (18 inches) long (including the bill), differs chiefly in having the head and neck pinkish brown in breeding season, white in wint...
  • Recurvirostra andina (bird)
    ...the bill), differs chiefly in having the head and neck pinkish brown in breeding season, white in winter. It nests in western North America and winters from California and Texas to Guatemala. The Andean avocet (R. andina), with a primarily white body, black back and wings, is confined to alkali lakes of the high Andes. The red-necked, or Australian, avocet (R. novaehollandiae)......
  • Recurvirostra avosetta (bird)
    Four species occur discontinuously in temperate and tropical regions worldwide. The Old World avocet (R. avosetta) has the crown and hindneck black, the wings black and white. It breeds in central Asia and in scattered localities in Europe. Many winter in Africa’s Rift Valley. The slightly larger American avocet (R. americana), which is about 45 cm (18 inches) long (including ...
  • Recurvirostridae (bird family)
    bird family (order Charadriiformes) composed of seven species of moderately large (29–48 cm [11–19 inches] ) wading birds characterized by extremely long legs, a relatively small head, and a long, slender bill. Better-known members of the family include the avocet, ibisbill, and stilt....
  • recusancy law (English history)
    The plot bitterly intensified Protestant suspicions of Catholics and led to the rigorous enforcement of the recusancy law, which fined those who refused to attend Anglican services. In January 1606 Parliament established November 5 as a day of public thanksgiving. The day, known as Guy Fawkes Day, is still celebrated with bonfires, fireworks, and the carrying of “guys” through the......
  • recusant (religious dissenter)
    ...of Parliament as knight of the shire for Warwick, was a justice of the queen’s peace and a member of the council for the Marches of Wales (to superintend the Welsh borders), and became a hunter of recusants (usually Roman Catholic dissenters from the Church of England). In 1588 he was a commissioner for musters against the Spanish Armada....
  • Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, The (translation by Caxton)
    ...Le Fèvre’s Recueil des histoires de Troye (1464), an account based on Guido, was translated into English by William Caxton and became the first book to be printed in English as The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye (c. 1474). See also Trojan War....
  • Recycler (device)
    ...the target and are focused by a lithium lens before being fed into a ring called the debuncher, where they undergo stochastic cooling. They are passed on first to an accumulator ring and then to the Recycler ring, where they are stored until there are a sufficient number for injection into the Main Injector. This provides acceleration to 150 GeV before transfer to the Tevatron. Protons and......
  • recycling
    recovery and reprocessing of waste materials for use in new products. The basic phases in recycling are the collection of waste materials, their processing or manufacture into new products, and the purchase of those products, which may then themselves be recycled. Typical materials that are recycled include iron and steel scrap, aluminum cans, glass bottles, paper, wood, and pla...
  • Red (Polish political faction)
    ...side of the political spectrum, there developed a number of conspiratorial groups composed of students, younger army officers, artisans, and members of the lesser gentry. Subsequently called the Reds, these radicals acted as a pressure group on the Agricultural Society and staged demonstrations commemorating Polish patriots or historic events. In 1861, the year of the peasant emancipation......
  • red (colour)
    ...pope in 1198), though some variations are admitted. White, as a symbol of purity, is used on all feasts of the Lord (including Maundy Thursday and All Saints’) and feasts of confessors and virgins. Red is used at Pentecost, recalling the fiery tongues that descended upon the Apostles when they received the Holy Spirit, and also at feasts of the Holy Cross, Apostles, and martyrs, as symbo...
  • red (subatomic property)
    ...ideas were published in 1973, colour has nothing to do with the colours of the everyday world but rather represents a property of quarks that is the source of the strong force. The colours red, green, and blue are ascribed to quarks, and their opposites, antired, antigreen, and antiblue, are ascribed to antiquarks. According to QCD, all combinations of quarks must......
  • “Red” (film by Kieślowski)
    ...film stars Irene Jacob in the dual roles. Kieślowski’s next efforts, the “Three Colours” trilogy, represented the colours of the French flag: Bleu (1993; Blue), Rouge (1994; Red) and Blanc (1994; White); respectively, they explored the themes of liberty, fraternity, and equality. The films were released three months apart and...
  • red abalone (snail)
    ...delicacy in several countries. Commercial fisheries for abalones exist in California, Mexico, Japan, and South Africa. About 50 species have been described. The largest abalone is the 30-centimetre red abalone (H. rufescens) of the western coast of the United States. H. rufescens and several other species are raised commercially in abalone “farms,” particularly in......
  • red acouchy (rodent)
    ...short (4 to 8 cm), pencil-thin tail with white hairs on the underside and at the tufted tip. The legs are long and slender, and the three-toed hind feet end in hooflike claws. The coarse fur of the red acouchy (Myoprocta acouchy) is dark chestnut red or orange on the sides of the body and legs and black or dark red on the rump; underparts range from dark red to orange. Upperparts...
  • red admiral (butterfly)
    ...Nymphalidae (order Lepidoptera) that are fast-flying and much prized by collectors for their coloration, which consists of black wings with white bands and reddish brown markings. The migratory red admiral (Vanessa atalanta), placed in the subfamily Nymphalinae, is widespread in Europe, Scandinavia, North America, and North Africa and feeds on stinging nettles. The western, or......
  • Red Airman, The (German aviator)
    Germany’s top aviator and leading ace in World War I....
  • red alder (tree)
    Familiar North American alders are the red alder (A. rubra, or A. oregona), a tall tree whose leaves have rusty hairs on their lower surfaces; the white, or Sierra, alder (A. rhombifolia), an early-flowering tree with orange-red twigs and buds; the speckled alder (A. rugosa), a small tree with conspicuous whitish, wartlike, porous markings, or lenticels; the......
  • red algae (protist)
    members of the division Rhodophyta (about 4,100 species), predominantly marine algae often found attached to other shore plants. Their morphological range includes filamentous, branched, feathered, and sheetlike thalli. In most species, thin protoplasmic connections provide continuity between cells. Their usual red or blue colour is the result of a masking of chlorophyll by phycobilin pigments (p...
  • Red and Blue Armchair (chair by Rietveld)
    Rietveld began his association with the movement known as de Stijl in 1918. At about the same time he created his famous red-and-blue armchair, which, in its emphasis on geometry and in its use of primary colours, was a realization of de Stijl principles (see photograph). In 1921 he designed a small Amsterdam jewelry shop, one of the first examples of the application of these principles......
  • Red and the Black, The (novel by Stendhal)
    ...in which the hero’s sexual impotence is symbolic of France’s conformist and oppressive society after the Restoration. The antagonism between the individual and society is the central subject of The Red and the Black. This realistic novel depicts the French social order under the Second Restoration (1815–30). The story centres on a carpenter’s son, Julien Sorel...
  • Red and White Plum Trees (work by Ogata Korin)
    ...the waves at Matsushima and the twofold screen “God of Thunder and God of Wind.” The work that is usually regarded as the supreme achievement of this period is the screen “Red and White Plum Trees.” In this work, Kōrin’s sense of flat, decorative design and his feeling for nature, combined with an emphasis on an abstract colour pattern, are seen at thei...
  • Red Angus (cattle breed)
    Within the breed, a strain known as Red Angus was gaining in popularity in the late 20th century, particularly for purposes of outcrossing and crossbreeding. The Brangus, developed from Brahman and Angus stocks, is notable for its resistance to heat....
  • Red Army (Chinese army)
    The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is the unified organization of all Chinese land, sea, and air forces. The history of the PLA is officially traced to the Nanchang Uprising of Aug. 1, 1927, which is celebrated annually as PLA Day. The PLA is one of the world’s largest military forces, with in excess of two million members. Military service is compulsory for all men who attain the ag...
  • Red Army (Soviet history)
    Soviet army created by the Communist government after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The name Red Army was abandoned in 1946....
  • Red Army Faction (German radical leftist group)
    West German radical leftist group formed in 1968 and popularly named after two of its early leaders, Andreas Baader (1943–77) and Ulrike Meinhof (1934–76)....
  • red avadavat (bird)
    (species Amandava, or Estrilda, amandava), plump, 8-centimetre- (3-inch-) long bird of the waxbill group (order Passeriformes), a popular cage bird. The avadavat is abundant in marshes and meadows of southern Asia (introduced in Hawaii). The male, in breeding plumage, is bright red with brown mottling and white speckling, hence another name, strawberry finch....
  • Red Badge of Courage, The (novel by Crane)
    ...left him to struggle as a poor and unknown freelance journalist, until he was befriended by Hamlin Garland and the influential critic William Dean Howells. Suddenly in 1895 the publication of The Red Badge of Courage and of his first book of poems, The Black Riders, brought him international fame. Strikingly different in tone and technique from Maggie, The Red Badge of......
  • red balata (plant genus)
    ...with high photosynthetic capacities that flush green but suffer high levels of insect damage, consequently lowering the trees’ lifetimes. At the other extreme are tree species such as Manilkara, almendro, and the suicide tree, characterized by slower growth and lower light requirements, with the capacity for extended persistence under low light conditions. Such trees tend...
  • Red Balloon, The (film by Lamorisse [1956])
    Original Screenplay: Albert Lamorisse for The Red BalloonMotion Picture Story: Dalton Trumbo (aka Robert Rich) for The Brave OneAdapted Screenplay: James Poe, John Farrow, S.J. Perelman for Around the world in 80 DaysCinematography, Black-and-White: Joseph......
  • red baneberry (plant)
    ...The cohosh, or herb Christopher (A. spicata), native to Eurasia, is approximately 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 inches) tall and bears purplish black berries that sometimes are used to make dye. The red baneberry, or red cohosh (A. rubra), native to North America, closely resembles A. spicata. Its fruits are red or ivory. The roots and berries of baneberry plants contain irritant.....
  • Red Banner (flag)
    In the early days of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks considered the Red Banner to be sufficient as a symbol for their ideological commitment to place all authority in the hands of workers and peasants. A plain red flag had first been used as a symbol of popular rights against autocratic governments during the French Revolution. The Red Banner became associated with socialist......
  • Red Baron, The (German aviator)
    Germany’s top aviator and leading ace in World War I....
  • Red Basin (region, China)
    basin comprising the greater part of eastern Sichuan province and the western portion of Chongqing municipality, southwestern China. It is surrounded by the highlands of the Plateau of Tibet on the west and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau on the south and the Wu Mountains on the east and th...
  • red bat (mammal genus)
    basin comprising the greater part of eastern Sichuan province and the western portion of Chongqing municipality, southwestern China. It is surrounded by the highlands of the Plateau of Tibet on the west and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau on the south and the Wu Mountains on the east and th...
  • red bat (mammal species)
    migratory vesper bat (family Vespertilionidae) found in wooded areas of North America. It is about 10 cm (4 inches) long, including a 5-cm (2-inch) tail, weighs 10–15 grams (0.33–0.5 ounce), and has narrow wings and short, rounded ears. The fur is fairly long, chestnut to rusty in colour, and tipped with white. The red bat is a strong, swift flier that spirals down...
  • red bear cat (Ailurus fulgens)
    reddish brown, long-tailed, raccoonlike mammal, about the size of a large cat, that is found in the mountain forests of the Himalayas and adjacent areas of eastern Asia and subsists mainly on bamboo and other vegetation, fruits, and insects. Once classified as a relative of the giant panda, it is now usually classified as the sole member of the subfamily Ailurinae in the raccoon family, Procyonida...
  • Red Beard (film by Kurosawa Akira)
    ...mainly with samurai as leading characters; Yojimbo (1961; “The Bodyguard”) is a representative work. Akahige (1965; Red Beard) combines elements of entertainment with a sentimental humanism. In the 1960s, however, Japanese cinema fell into an economic depression, and Kurosawa’s plans, in most cases, ...
  • red bed (geology)
    ...all the oxygen that was released? It might be surprising to learn that it took at least 1 billion years before there was sufficient oxygen in the atmosphere for oxidative diagenesis to give rise to red beds (sandstones that are predominantly red in colour due to fully oxidized iron coating individual grains) and that 2.2 billion years passed before a large number of life-forms could evolve. An....
  • Red Beds (region, Oklahoma, United States)
    ...and vegetable farms in the river valleys. Oil and gas fields are common, as is strip-mining for coal. It contains a number of middle-sized towns, some of which have small manufacturing plants. The Red Beds region is the largest, running through the middle of the state. The greatest population density is located there, as are most of the larger towns. Oil provides much of the income. Although......
  • red beech (plant)
    The American beech (F. grandifolia), native to eastern North America, and the European beech (F. sylvatica), distributed throughout England and Eurasia, are the most widely known species. Both are economically important timber trees, often planted as ornamentals in Europe and North America; they may grow to 30 m (100 feet). The narrow, coarsely saw-toothed, heavily......
  • red beech (Nothofagus fusca)
    ...long; the myrtle beech, Tasmanian myrtle, or Australian, or red, myrtle (N. cunninghamii), a 60-m-tall Tasmanian tree important for its fine-textured wood; the slender, columnar red beech (N. fusca) of New Zealand, about 30 m tall; and the silver, or southland, beech (N. menziesii), a 30-m-tall New Zealand tree with doubly and bluntly toothed......
  • red birch (tree)
    North American ornamental and timber tree in the family Betulaceae. Usually about 18 m (60 feet) tall, the tree may reach 24 m or more in the southern Appalachians; on poor soil it may be stunted and shrublike....
  • red birch (tree)
    ornamental tree of the family Betulaceae, found on river and stream banks in the eastern one-third of the United States. Because the lower trunk becomes very dark with age, the tree is sometimes called black birch, a name more properly applied to sweet birch (q.v.)....
  • red birch (Betula occidentalis)
    Water birch (B. occidentalis; B. fontinalis of some authorities), a shrubby tree native to moist sites along the western coast of North America, has nonpeeling, dark-red bark; it grows in clusters, with all stems rising from a common root system. It is sometimes called red birch, black birch, or mountain birch. Swamp birch (B. pumila), a similar but smaller shrub, is found......
  • red bishop (bird)
    ...their stumpy tails. The male vigorously defends a bit of grassland or marsh, where his drab-streaked spouses—sometimes six or more—occupy globular nests. The 13-centimetre (5-inch) red bishop (E. orix), also called grenadier weaver, displays by flying about and clapping its wings. Red bishops have become established in southern Australia....
  • red blindness (colour defectiveness)
    Colour-blind persons may be blind to one, two, or all of the colours red, green, and blue. (Blindness to red is called protanopia; to green, deuteranopia; and to blue, tritanopia.) Red-blind persons are ordinarily unable to distinguish between red and green, while blue-blind persons cannot distinguish between blue and yellow. Green-blind persons are unable to see the green part of the......
  • red blood cell (biology)
    cellular component of blood, millions of which in the circulation of vertebrates give the blood its characteristic colour and carry oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. The mature human erythrocyte is small, round, and biconcave; it appears dumbbell-shaped in profile. The cell is flexible and assumes a bell shape as it passes through extremely small blood ves...
  • Red Bluff (California, United States)
    city, seat (1857) of Tehama county, northern California, U.S. It lies along the Sacramento River, 115 miles (185 km) north-northwest of Sacramento. Settled in the 1840s, it was known as Leodocia until sometime before 1854, when it was renamed for the reddish sand and low bluffs on which it stands. In the 1850s it was a supply centre for the ...
  • Red Book (liturgy by John III)
    ...in the possibility of a synthesis of Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism and negotiated to that end with Catholic leaders in Rome and Spain. He introduced a liturgy of his own in 1577, the “Red Book,” which restored some of the Catholic liturgical usages that had been swept away in the triumph of Lutheranism in Sweden. By 1580 he realized that a settlement with Rome was impossible.....
  • “Red Book Data” (international publication)
    Worldwide surveys of endangered species are undertaken by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and the results are published in its Red Lists....
  • Red Book of Clanranald (work by MacMhuirich)
    ...of the work songs and of the classical bagpipe music. Some of the poetry and prose was contained in three 17th-century manuscripts. The first two were the Black Book of Clanranald and the Red Book of Clanranald, written by members of the MacMhuirich family, who were latterly hereditary bards to the MacDonalds of Clanranald. They were probably written for the most part in the 17th....
  • Red Book of Hergest, The (medieval manuscript)
    ...description and verse for dialogue and soliloquy, but the verse passages are all that remain. They are written in three-line stanzas (englynion), for the most part, and are preserved in The Red Book of Hergest, a manuscript dating to c. 1400. The poems were edited and translated several times in the 20th century....
  • red box tree (plant)
    ...of superficially similar trees, known as false beech (Nothofagus), are native to cooler regions of the Southern Hemisphere. The term beech has been used with a variety of qualifying terms. Australian beech refers to both Nothofagus moorei, described hereafter, and red box, a tree of the family Myrtaceae; blue beech and water beech are other names for the American hornbeam......
  • Red Brigades (Italian militant organization)
    militant left-wing organization in Italy that gained notoriety in the 1970s for kidnappings, murders, and sabotage. Its self-proclaimed aim was to undermine the Italian state and pave the way for a Marxist upheaval led by a “revolutionary proletariat.”...
  • red buckeye (plant)
    ...or yellow, buckeye (A. flava, or A. octandra), with yellow flowers, is the largest buckeye, up to 27 m (89 feet), and is naturally abundant in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Red buckeye (A. pavia), with red flowers, is an attractive small tree, reaching a height of up to 7.6 m (25 feet), rarely taller....
  • red buffalo (mammal)
    ...throughout sub-Saharan Africa, it has been greatly reduced in numbers by disease, hunting, and habitat conversion to rangeland or other agricultural use. A subspecies of Cape buffalo called the forest, or red, buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus) is found in dense West African forests; it is smaller, is reddish brown, and has shorter horns....
  • red bug (insect)
    any insect of the family Pyrrhocoridae (order Heteroptera), which contains more than 300 species. The red bug—a fairly common, gregarious, plant-feeding insect found mostly in the tropics and subtropics—is oval in shape and brightly coloured with red. It ranges in length from 8 to 18 mm (0.3 to 0.7 inch). Dimorphism, a condition in which two or more visibly different forms exist, may...
  • Red Bull Theatre (historical theatre, Islington, London, United Kingdom)
    London public playhouse in Upper Street, Clerkenwell, built in about 1600–05 by Aaron Holland and noted for the vulgarity and obstreperousness of its patrons. The Red Bull was frequented by rowdy neighbourhood theatregoers, and several were called before Middlesex justices in 1610, charged with committing a “notable outrage” at the theatre. Such disturbances there appear to h...
  • red calla lily (plant)
    ...that spring from a thick rootstock. It is a popular indoor plant grown commercially for cut flowers. The golden, or yellow, calla lily (Z. elliottiana), with more heart-shaped leaves, and the pink, or red, calla lily (Z. rehmannii) are also grown. The spotted, or black-throated, calla lily (Z. albomaculata), with white-spotted leaves, has a whitish to yellow or pink spathe....
  • Red Caps (American baseball team)
    Maranville, who batted and threw right-handed, played minor league baseball during the years 1911–12 for a team in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He joined the National League Boston Braves in 1912, playing with them through the 1920 season. In 1914 Maranville and his team had a remarkable season—the Braves went from being in last place in the National League on the Fourth of July to......
  • Red Carnation, The (work by Vittorini)
    Vittorini’s first major novel, Il garofano rosso (written 1933–35, published 1948; The Red Carnation), while overtly portraying the personal, scholastic, and sexual problems of an adolescent boy, also conveys the poisonous political atmosphere of fascism. In 1936 Vittorini began writing his most important novel, Conversazione in Sicilia (1941, rev. ed. 1965; Eng....
  • Red Cavalry (work by Babel)
    ...jobs over the next seven years. Perhaps his most significant experience was as a soldier in the war with Poland. Out of that campaign came the group of stories known as Konarmiya (1926; Red Cavalry). These stories present different aspects of war through the eyes of an inexperienced, intellectual young Jew who reports everything graphically and with naive precision. Though......
  • red cedar (plant group)
    common name for many evergreen trees of the cypress family (Cupressaceae), especially western red cedar (Thuja plicata), also known as giant arborvitae, and eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana)....
  • red clay (geology)
    An estimated 1016 tons of red clay covers about 104 million square kilometres of the ocean floor. Although compositional analyses are not particularly exciting, red clay may possess some value as a raw material in the clay-products industries, or it may serve as a source of metals in the future. The average assay for alumina is about 15 percent, but red clays from specific......
  • Red Cloud (Nebraska, United States)
    city, seat (1871) of Webster county, southern Nebraska, U.S. It lies near the Republican River, a few miles north of the Kansas state line, about 35 miles (55 km) south of Hastings. First settled by Capt. Silas Garber (state governor, 1875–79), it was laid out in 1872 and named for the warrior-chief of the Oglala Sioux Indians. The arrival of the Burlington and Missouri R...
  • Red Cloud (Sioux chief)
    a principal chief of the Oglala Teton Dakota (Sioux), who successfully resisted (1865–67) the U.S. government’s development of the Bozeman Trail to newly discovered goldfields in Montana Territory....
  • Red Cloud (painting by Mondrian)
    ...the art of Post-Impressionist Vincent van Gogh, whose work had been featured in a large exhibition in Amsterdam in 1905. Such daring use of colour was reflected in Mondrian’s Red Cloud, a rapidly executed sketch from 1907. By the time he painted Woods near Oele in 1908, new values began to appear in his work, including a linear mo...
  • red clover (plant)
    The most important agricultural species are red clover (T. pratense), white clover (T. repens), and alsike clover (T. hybridum). Red clover, a biennial, or short-lived perennial, bears an oval, purplish flower head about 2.5 cm (1 inch) in diameter. White clover, a low, creeping perennial, is often used in lawn-grass mixtures and bears a white flower head often......
  • red cohosh (plant)
    ...The cohosh, or herb Christopher (A. spicata), native to Eurasia, is approximately 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 inches) tall and bears purplish black berries that sometimes are used to make dye. The red baneberry, or red cohosh (A. rubra), native to North America, closely resembles A. spicata. Its fruits are red or ivory. The roots and berries of baneberry plants contain irritant.....
  • red colobus (primate)
    ...to make long leaps between trees. The three genera of colobus are all more or less thumbless and can be distinguished by colour: black-and-white colobus (genus Colobus), red colobus (genus Piliocolobus), and olive colobus (genus Procolobus)....
  • red coral (invertebrate)
    ...and branching or prostrate. Commonly yellow, red, or purple. Reduced medusae not freed; develop and produce gametes in cavities of skeleton (ampullae). Worldwide; includes precious red coral, Corallium.Order TrachylinaMedusa dominant; reduced or no polyp stage. Statocysts and special sensory structures (tentaculocy...
  • red corpuscle (biology)
    cellular component of blood, millions of which in the circulation of vertebrates give the blood its characteristic colour and carry oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. The mature human erythrocyte is small, round, and biconcave; it appears dumbbell-shaped in profile. The cell is flexible and assumes a bell shape as it passes through extremely small blood ves...
  • red crab
    Pacific crab species closely related to the Dungeness crab....
  • Red Crescent (charitable organization)
    humanitarian agency with national affiliates in almost every country in the world. The Red Cross movement began with the founding of the International Committee for the Relief of the Wounded (now the International Committee of the Red Cross) in 1863; it was established to care for victims of battle in time of war, but later national Red Cross societies were created to aid in the...
  • Red Cross (play by Shepard)
    ...audience in Off-Off-Broadway productions. In the 1965–66 season, Shepard won Obie awards (presented by the Village Voice newspaper) for his plays Chicago, Icarus’s Mother, and Red Cross....
  • Red Cross (charitable organization)
    humanitarian agency with national affiliates in almost every country in the world. The Red Cross movement began with the founding of the International Committee for the Relief of the Wounded (now the International Committee of the Red Cross) in 1863; it was established to care for victims of battle in time of war, but later national Red Cross societies were created to aid in the...
  • Red Cross and Red Crescent (charitable organization)
    humanitarian agency with national affiliates in almost every country in the world. The Red Cross movement began with the founding of the International Committee for the Relief of the Wounded (now the International Committee of the Red Cross) in 1863; it was established to care for victims of battle in time of war, but later national Red Cross societies were created to aid in the...
  • Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, League of (international organization)
    international organization responsible for encouraging the formation of and aiding national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. The federation shared the Nobel Prize for Peace with the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1963; at the time its name was the League of Red Cross Societies....
  • Red Cross Societies, League of (international organization)
    international organization responsible for encouraging the formation of and aiding national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. The federation shared the Nobel Prize for Peace with the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1963; at the time its name was the League of Red Cross Societies....
  • red crossbill (bird)
    North America hosts a variety of crossbills. In fact, evidence suggests that the eight different varieties of the red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) may actually be different species. Each has a slightly different call note, a variant of the hard “kip-kip” given in flight. There are also differences in diet and bill size, with different forms feeding on specific conifers; for.....
  • red crystal (charitable organization)
    humanitarian agency with national affiliates in almost every country in the world. The Red Cross movement began with the founding of the International Committee for the Relief of the Wounded (now the International Committee of the Red Cross) in 1863; it was established to care for victims of battle in time of war, but later national Red Cross societies were created to aid in the...
  • red currant (shrub)
    ...English, or European, gooseberry (R. uva-crispa), American gooseberry (R. hirtellum), black currant (R. nigrum), buffalo currant (R. odoratum), and common, or garden or red, currant (R. rubrum). Species of ornamental value include the alpine currant (R. alpinum); buffalo currant; fuchsia-flowered gooseberry (R. speciosum); golden, or clove,......
  • red deer (mammal)
    (Cervus elaphus), well-known deer, family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla), native to Europe, Asia, and northwestern Africa and introduced into New Zealand. The red deer has long been hunted both for sport and food. Found primarily in woodlands, it lives in sexually segregated herds except during the breeding season, when the males (harts) fight for harems of females (hinds). A large animal, ...
  • Red Deer (Alberta, Canada)
    city, central Alberta, Canada, on the Red Deer River, midway between Calgary (90 miles [145 km] south) and Edmonton. Original settlement began around a ford where the trail from Calgary to Edmonton crossed the river (Red Deer Crossing), a little west of the present site. A militia post, Fort Normandeau, was built there during the North West Rebellion (1885); a...
  • Red Deer River (river, Canada)
    river in southern Alberta, Canada, a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan River. Rising in the Front Ranges of the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Banff National Park, the river flows northeast and then southeastward for 450 miles (724 km) before entering the South Saskatchewan River at a point 5 miles (8 km) across the Saskatchewan border. The Red Deer (which was misnamed by e...
  • red disa (plant)
    ...ranging in colour from white to purple and in diameter from about 0.5 to 10 centimetres (about 0.2 to 4 inches). The upper sepal of each flower usually has a spur and stands upright, forming a hood. Red disa (Disa uniflora), a South African species, bears pink and scarlet flowers....
  • red dog (card game)
    name for two different simple gambling card games....
  • red dog (canine)
    wild Asian carnivore of the dog family (Canidae), found in central and southeastern wooded areas and distinguished structurally by the lack of one pair of lower molars. Its length ranges between 76 and 100 cm (30 and 40 inches), exclusive of the 28–48-centimetre (11–19-inch) tail, and its weight is from 14 to 21 kg (30 to 46 pounds). Coloration varies from yellowish to reddish brown,...
  • red drum (fish)
    Although the name croaker, or drum, is applied to the family as a whole and to certain species, some of the sciaenids are known by such names as corbina, whiting, weakfish, and channel bass. Many members of the family are food or game fishes. Among the better-known species are the channel bass, or red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), a large, reddish species of the western Atlantic Ocean; the......
  • Red Earl, The (Welsh noble)
    Welsh nobleman whose belated support of King Henry III of England was a major factor in the collapse of the baronial rebellion led by Simon de Montfort....
  • Red Earl, The (Irish noble)
    leading member of the Butler family in Ireland; he claimed the earldom in 1515, seized the estates, and revived the Butler influence....
  • red elm (plant)
    The American elm (U. americana), of eastern North America, may grow 24 to 30 m (about 80 to 100 feet) tall. It has dark gray, ridged bark and elliptical leaves. Slippery, or red, elm (U. rubra), a shorter species with a similar but smaller distribution, has a gluelike substance in the inner bark, which was formerly steeped in water as a remedy for throat ailments, powdered for use......
  • Red Emma (American anarchist)
    international anarchist who conducted leftist activities in the United States from about 1890 to 1917....
  • Red Eyebrows (Chinese rebel group)
    ...population, famine, and epidemics—led to increasing unrest, civil war, and a migration southward. Peasants banded together in ever larger units. One of these groups, the so-called Red Eyebrows, became from ad 18 strong enough to defeat Wang Mang’s armies. Secondary rebellions followed, including uprisings in the capital region itself. On Oct. 4, ad 23, ...
  • red fescue (plant)
    ...grows in dense tufts and forms turfs in dry or sandy soil. One variety, known as blue fescue (F. ovina variety glauca), has smooth, silvery leaves and is planted in ornamental borders. Red fescue (F. rubra) is used in lawn grass mixtures....
  • red fibre (physiology)
    ...They are dependent on anaerobic glycolysis for energy production. Slow-twitch fibres have a high amount of myoglobin and a greater capacity for oxidative metabolism. These fibres are often called red fibres. Therefore, dark meat colour is a result of a relatively high concentration of slow-twitch fibres in the muscle of the animal....
  • Red Flag Act (1865, United Kingdom)
    ...and the enmity of the horse-coach interests, which resulted in such penalties as a charge of £5 for passing a tollgate that cost a horse coach only three pence. The crushing blow was the Locomotives on Highways Act of 1865, which reduced permissible speeds on public roads to 2 miles (3 km) per hour within cities and 4 miles (6 km) per hour in rural areas. This legislation was known......
  • Red Flag Canal (canal, China)
    canal and irrigation system in northern Henan and in Shanxi provinces, eastern China, constructed in 1960–69 to irrigate the poor and infertile area of Linxian county (now Linzhou municipality) in the foothills of the Taihang Mountains west of Anyang. To relieve this area’s chronic shortage...
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