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Caplan, Saul (American musician)
American songwriter and Hollywood musical director who won three Academy Awards for best scoring of a musical picture for An American in Paris, West Side Story, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; Chaplin collaborated with Sammy Cahn...
Caplin, Alfred Gerald (American cartoonist)
American cartoonist who created the popular comic strip “Li’l Abner.”...
CAPM (economics)
...work of Markowitz (whose “portfolio theory” established that wealth can best be invested in assets that vary in terms of risk and expected return) and Sharpe (who developed the “capital asset pricing model” to explain how securities prices reflect risks and potential returns). The Modigliani-Miller theorem explains the relationship between a company’s capital ...
Capnodiales (order of fungi)
Annotated classification...
Capo d’Istria, Giovanni Antonio, Conte (Greek statesman)
Greek statesman who was prominent in the Russian foreign service during the reign of Alexander I (reigned 1801–25) and in the Greek struggle for independence....
Capodimonte, National Museum and Galleries of (museum, Naples, Italy)
art museum in Naples housed in the Palazzo of Capodimonte (begun 1738)....
Capodimonte porcelain
soft-paste porcelain produced by a factory established in 1743 at the Palazzo of Capodimonte by Charles III of Naples. Ware was produced there in large quantity and wide variety until 1759, when the concern was dismantled and removed to Buen Retiro, near Madrid, when Charles became king of Spain. Capodimonte is to be distinguished from the products of the royal factory at Naples that Charles...
Capodistria (Slovenia)
seaport in Slovenia, just southwest of Trieste (Italy). Formerly an island in the Adriatic Sea, it was connected to the mainland by a causeway (1825) and drainage works. It was known to the Romans as Capris (3rd century bc–6th century ad). From 932 until ...
capoeira (dance-like martial art)
dancelike martial art of Brazil, performed to the accompaniment of call-and-response choral singing and percussive instrumental music. It is most strongly associated with the country’s northeastern region....
capon (bird)
...in many jurisdictions), but most immature males (cockerels) are castrated (in modern times usually chemically, with hormones that cause atrophying of the testicles) to become meat birds, called capons. Originally, meat production was a by-product of egg production. Only hens that could no longer produce enough eggs were killed and sold for meat. By the mid-20th century, however, meat......
Capon, William (English architect)
In the early 19th century an important designer was William Capon, who utilized pieces set at various raked angles and elaborate back cloths as an alternative to flats and wings. His sets were also large enough not to be overpowered by the larger theatres. One of Capon’s sets, depicting a 14th-century cathedral, was 56 feet wide and 52 feet deep. His sets were historically accurate even tho...
Capone, Al (American gangster)
the most famous American gangster, who dominated organized crime in Chicago from 1925 to 1931....
Capone, Alphonse (American gangster)
the most famous American gangster, who dominated organized crime in Chicago from 1925 to 1931....
caporegime (criminal)
...Each don had an underboss, who functioned as a vice president or deputy director, and a consigliere, or counselor, who had considerable power and influence. Below the underboss were the caporegime, or lieutenants, who, acting as buffers between the lower echelon workers and the don himself, protected him from a too-direct association with the organization’s illicit operations.......
Caporetto, Battle of (European history)
(Oct. 24, 1917), Italian military disaster during World War I in which Italian troops retreated before an Austro-German offensive on the Isonzo front, northwest of Trieste, where the Italian and Austrian forces had been stalemated for two and a half years. In the wake ...
Capote (motion picture)
This was a fruitful year for film biographies, one of the best being Bennett Miller’s Capote, a perceptive portrait of Truman Capote (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) at the time of his coverage of the Kansas killings that inspired the nonfiction novel In Cold Blood. In George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck, David Strathairn played commentator Edward R. Mur...
Capote, Truman (American author)
American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. His early writing extended the Southern Gothic tradition, but he later developed a more journalistic approach in the novel In Cold Blood (1965), which remains his best-known work....
Capp, Al (American cartoonist)
American cartoonist who created the popular comic strip “Li’l Abner.”...
Cappadocia (ancient district, Turkey)
ancient district in east-central Anatolia in the rugged plateau north of the Taurus Mountains, in present-day Turkey. The area was important as a Roman ally, client, and, later, province. The earliest records of Cappadocia date from the 6th century bc, when its feudal nobility was dominated ...
Cappadocian Father (theology)
Although Athanasius prepared the ground, constructive agreement on the central doctrine of the Trinity was not reached in his lifetime, either between the divided parties in the East or between East and West with their divergent traditions. The decisive contribution to the Trinitarian argument was made by a remarkable group of philosophically minded theologians from Cappadocia—Basil of......
Cappadocian tablets (archaeology)
...an intrusion of foreign invaders, possibly Indo-European Hittites or related tribes, who were rapidly assimilated. Among the remains of the native Anatolian culture were a number of 19th-century “Cappadocian tablets,” the records of Assyrian merchant colonists who lived at Alişar Hüyük....
Capparaceae (plant family)
Members of Capparaceae, the caper family, are trees, shrubs, or lianas, sometimes herbs, that are usually found in the tropics. The family may contain up to 16 genera and 480 species, although some genera currently included may not belong there. Capparis (about 250 species) is pantropical but also grows in warm temperate areas. Boscia (37 species) is found in Africa and Arabia.......
Capparis (plant)
Any of the low prickly shrubs that make up the genus Capparis (family Capparaceae), of the Mediterranean region. The European caperbush (C. spinosa) is known for its flower buds, which are pickled in vinegar and used as a spicy condiment. The term caper also refers to one of the pickled flower buds or young berr...
Capparis decidua (plant species)
...is known for its flower buds, which are pickled in vinegar and used as a spicy condiment. The term caper also refers to one of the pickled flower buds or young berries. Buds of C. decidua are eaten as potherbs, and curries are prepared from seeds and fruits of C. zeylandica....
Capparis spinosa (plant species)
Any of the low prickly shrubs that make up the genus Capparis (family Capparaceae), of the Mediterranean region. The European caperbush (C. spinosa) is known for its flower buds, which are pickled in vinegar and used as a spicy condiment. The term caper also refers to one of the pickled flower buds or young berries. Buds of C. decidua are eaten as......
Capparis zeylandica (plant species)
...The term caper also refers to one of the pickled flower buds or young berries. Buds of C. decidua are eaten as potherbs, and curries are prepared from seeds and fruits of C. zeylandica....
capped column (meteorology)
...with hexagonally symmetrical structure. According to a recent internationally accepted classification, there are seven types of snow crystals: plates, stellars, columns, needles, spatial dendrites, capped columns, and irregular crystals. The size and shape of the snow crystals depend mainly on the temperature of their formation and on the amount of water vapour that is available for deposition....
Cappel, Louis (French theologian)
French Huguenot theologian and Hebrew scholar....
Cappella Colleoni (chapel, Bergamo, Italy)
...upper (alta) and lower (bassa, or piana) towns, linked by a cable railway. Notable landmarks of the older upper town include the Romanesque cathedral, rebuilt 1483 and 1639; the Cappella (chapel) Colleoni (1470–76), by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, with ceiling frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo; the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (begun 1137, rebuilt 14th and 15th.....
Cappella del Crocifisso (church, Cassino, Italy)
...in 1066, were found and restored. The archives, library, and some paintings were saved. Of ancient Casinum the only monuments of note are the amphitheatre, the theatre, and the ruins of the Cappella del Crocifisso, a Roman mausoleum converted into a church in the 10th century. Of the medieval town little more than the site of the upper town, clustered around the ruins of Rocca Ianula,......
Cappella Palatina (chapel, Palermo, Italy)
...church (Martorana) embellished according to the classical system has already been noted. In other 12th-century churches in Sicily, the Byzantine element is blended with western Mediterranean traits. Cappella Palatina, the palace chapel of the royal residence at Palermo (c. 1143 and later), for example, is a synthesis of a centralized middle Byzantine church and a basilica. The building.....
Cappellari, Bartolomeo Alberto Mauro (pope)
pope from 1831 to 1846. His efforts to consolidate papal authority within the church were matched by his support of traditional monarchies throughout Europe....
Cappelli, Adriano (Italian scholar)
...as university textbooks, are heavily loaded with abbreviations. The number of signs and devices in use by the end of the Middle Ages was enormous. More than 13,000 are listed in the standard work, Adriano Cappelli’s Lexicon Abbreviaturarum (1912)....
Cappello, Bianca (Venetian noble)
Venetian noblewoman, renowned for her beauty and intelligence, whose court intrigues were the scandal of her time....
capper (gambling)
...whereas a cube with bevels, on which one or more sides have been trimmed so that they are slightly convex, will tend to roll off of its convex sides. Shapes are the most common of all crooked dice. Loaded dice (called tappers, missouts, passers, floppers, cappers, or spot loaders, depending on how and where extra weight has been applied) may prove to be perfect cubes when measured with......
capping (geology)
Contour mining is commonly practiced where a coal seam outcrops in rolling or hilly terrain. Basically, the method consists of removing the overburden above the coal seam and then, starting at the outcrop and proceeding along the hillside, creating a bench around the hill. In the past, the blasted overburden spoil was simply shoved down the hill; currently, soil is either carried down the......
capping the rhyme (word game)
a game in which one player gave a word or line of verse to be matched in rhyme by other players. Thus, one said, “I know a word that rhymes with bird.” A second asked, “Is it ridiculous?” “No, it is not absurd.” “Is it a part of speech?” “No, it is not a word.” This proceede...
capping the T (naval formation)
A positional advantage could be added to this firepower advantage if the fleet “crossed the T” of the enemy, that is, if its own column crossed in front of the enemy column at a right angle and with the ships at the head of the enemy column within range of its guns. From this position at the top of the T, all the guns of the fleet could fire upon the head of the enemy column, while.....
Capponi, Gino, Marchese (Italian historian and statesman)
historian, statesman, and leader of liberalism in Tuscany who played an extremely influential role in the rise of the Risorgimento. His salon in Florence was long a centre for the leading liberal thinkers of Europe....
Cappuccilli, Piero (Italian singer)
Italian operatic baritone (b. Nov. 9, 1926, Trieste, Italy—d. July 12, 2005, Trieste), enjoyed a 35-year career during which he was widely regarded as the leading Italian baritone of his generation; he was particularly known for his tendency to insert unwritten high notes into his performances. Cappuccilli’s official debut was at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan in 1957 as Tonio in Ruggero ...
Capra (mammal)
any ruminant and hollow-horned mammal belonging to the genus Capra. Related to the sheep, the goat is lighter of build, has horns that arch backward, a short tail, and straighter hair. Male goats, called bucks or billys, usually have a beard. Females are called does or nannys, and immature goats are called kids. Wild goats include the ibex and ...
Capra aegagrus (mammal)
Domesticated goats are descended from the pasang (Capra aegagrus), which is probably native to Asia, the earliest records being Persian. In China, Great Britain, Europe, and North America the domestic goat is primarily a milk producer, with a large portion of the milk being used to make cheese. One or two goats will supply sufficient milk for a family throughout the year and can be......
Capra falconeri (mammal)
large wild goat of the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), formerly found throughout the mountains from Kashmir and Turkistan to Afghanistan but now greatly reduced in population and range. The flare-horned markhor (C. f. falconeri) occurs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India; t...
Capra falconeri falconeri (mammal)
large wild goat of the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), formerly found throughout the mountains from Kashmir and Turkistan to Afghanistan but now greatly reduced in population and range. The flare-horned markhor (C. f. falconeri) occurs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India; the straight-horned markhor (C. f. megaceros) lives in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and the Bukharan markhor......
Capra falconeri heptneri (mammal)
...range. The flare-horned markhor (C. f. falconeri) occurs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India; the straight-horned markhor (C. f. megaceros) lives in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and the Bukharan markhor (C. f. heptneri) is present in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. All subspecies are considered endangered to critically endangered. Habitat loss,......
Capra falconeri megaceros (mammal)
...mountains from Kashmir and Turkistan to Afghanistan but now greatly reduced in population and range. The flare-horned markhor (C. f. falconeri) occurs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India; the straight-horned markhor (C. f. megaceros) lives in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and the Bukharan markhor (C. f. heptneri) is present in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and......
Capra, Frank (American film director)
American motion-picture director best known for a series of gently satiric and sentimental situation comedies during the 1930s and ’40s....
Capra ibex (mammal)
The European, or Alpine, ibex (C. ibex ibex) is typical. Adult males weigh around 100 kg (220 pounds), while females are about 50 kg (110 pounds). Males stand about 90 cm (3 feet) at the shoulder (females are about 10 cm [4 inches] shorter) and have brownish to gray fur, which is darker on the underparts. The male has a beard and large, semicircular horns with broad, transversely ridged......
Capra ibex ibex (mammal)
The European, or Alpine, ibex (C. ibex ibex) is typical. Adult males weigh around 100 kg (220 pounds), while females are about 50 kg (110 pounds). Males stand about 90 cm (3 feet) at the shoulder (females are about 10 cm [4 inches] shorter) and have brownish to gray fur, which is darker on the underparts. The male has a beard and large, semicircular horns with broad, transversely ridged......
Capra ibex nubiana (mammal)
Among the species closely related to the European ibex are the Siberian, or Asiatic, ibex (C. sibirica), which is larger and has a longer beard and horns, and the Nubian ibex (C. nubiana), which is smaller and has long, slender horns. Other ibexes include the Spanish ibex (C. pyrenaica) and the walia, or Abyssinian ibex (C. walie), which has been reduced to a single......
Capra ibex sibirica (mammal)
Among the species closely related to the European ibex are the Siberian, or Asiatic, ibex (C. sibirica), which is larger and has a longer beard and horns, and the Nubian ibex (C. nubiana), which is smaller and has long, slender horns. Other ibexes include the Spanish ibex (C. pyrenaica) and the walia, or Abyssinian ibex (C. walie), which has been reduced to a single......
Capra ibex walie (mammal)
...and has a longer beard and horns, and the Nubian ibex (C. nubiana), which is smaller and has long, slender horns. Other ibexes include the Spanish ibex (C. pyrenaica) and the walia, or Abyssinian ibex (C. walie), which has been reduced to a single population of about 400 individuals in Ethiopia and whose numbers are still declining. Two subspecies of Spanish ibex are now......
Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica (mammal)
...ibex (C. walie), which has been reduced to a single population of about 400 individuals in Ethiopia and whose numbers are still declining. Two subspecies of Spanish ibex are now extinct (C. pyrenaica pyrenaica, which lived in the Pyrenees, and C. pyrenaica lusitanica, which was found in Portugal) and one is vulnerable (C. pyrenaica victoriae, which lives in the......
Capra, Villa (villa, Vicenza, Italy)
...or the estate headquarters of a gentleman farmer. Included in the former category are the least typical and most widely copied of Palladio’s villa designs, the villa for Giulio Capra, called the Villa Rotonda, near Vicenza. This was a hilltop belvedere, or summer house, with a view, of completely symmetrical plan with hexastyle, or porticoes on each of four sides and central circular hal...
Capraia Island (island, Italy)
(from capra, “wild goat”), island of the Arcipelago Toscano, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, between the Italian mainland and the north point of Corsica. Capraia, mountainous and volcanic, rising to 1,467 feet (447 metres), produces wine and is a centre of anchovy fishing. About one-third of its area has been occ...
Caprara, Giovanni Battista (Italian diplomat)
Roman Catholic churchman and diplomat who negotiated between the Vatican and Napoleon Bonaparte....
Capraria (island, Italy)
(from capra, “wild goat”), island of the Arcipelago Toscano, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, between the Italian mainland and the north point of Corsica. Capraia, mountainous and volcanic, rising to 1,467 feet (447 metres), produces wine and is a centre of anchovy fishing. About one-third of its area has been occ...
Capreae (island, Italy)
island near the southern entrance to the Bay of Naples, Campania regione (region), southern Italy; it lies opposite the Sorrento peninsula, to which it was joined in prehistoric times. The island is a single block of limestone 3.9 miles (6.25 km) long, with a maximum width of 1.8 miles...
Caprellidae (crustacean)
any of certain marine crustaceans of the family Caprellidae (order Amphipoda), particularly of the genera Caprella and Aeginella. The common name derives from the slender body structure. Most species are predators on other small animals, but some feed on organic debris....
Capreolinae (mammal subfamily)
The New World deer came from a separate radiation that colonized North and South America and Eurasia. Among the grotesque giants that evolved in the Ice Age are the moose (Alces alces), the largest of all deer, standing 2 metres (7 feet) or more at the shoulder, and the reindeer, the most plains-adapted runner among deer with relatively large antlers. Also cold-adapted are the......
Capreolus (mammal)
small, graceful Eurasian deer of the family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla). There are two species of roe deer: the European, or western, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and the larger Siberian roe deer (C. pygargus). Despite their Old World distribution, roe deer are more clo...
Capreolus capreolus (mammal)
small, graceful Eurasian deer of the family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla). There are two species of roe deer: the European, or western, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and the larger Siberian roe deer (C. pygargus). Despite their Old World distribution, roe deer are more closely related to New World deer than to Old World deer. They are well adapted to cold environments, and they......
Capréolus, Jean (Dominican scholar)
Dominican scholar whose Four Books of Defenses of the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas (written 1409–33), generally known as the Defensiones, contributed to a revival of Thomistic theology and won for the author the sobriquet Prince of the Thomists. He began the project while lecturing at the University of P...
Capreolus pygargus (mammal)
small, graceful Eurasian deer of the family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla). There are two species of roe deer: the European, or western, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and the larger Siberian roe deer (C. pygargus). Despite their Old World distribution, roe deer are more closely related to New World deer than to Old World deer. They are well adapted to cold environments, and they......
Caprera Island (island, Italy)
island in the Tyrrhenian Sea (of the Mediterranean) off northeastern Sardinia, Italy. Administratively part of La Maddalena comune (commune), it has an area of 6 square miles (16 square km) and is connected by causeway with the adjacent island of Maddalena. The Italian nationalist leader Giuse...
Capri (people)
...the Great, whom he admired greatly, and embarked on an active external policy. He fought successfully against the Teutonic tribes of the upper Danube, among whom the Alamanni, as well as the Capri of the middle Danube, appeared for the first time; he often prudently mixed military operations with negotiation and gave important subsidies and money (in sound currency) to the barbarians,......
Capri, Island of (island, Italy)
island near the southern entrance to the Bay of Naples, Campania regione (region), southern Italy; it lies opposite the Sorrento peninsula, to which it was joined in prehistoric times. The island is a single block of limestone 3.9 miles (6.25 km) long, with a maximum width of 1.8 miles...
Capri, Isola di (island, Italy)
island near the southern entrance to the Bay of Naples, Campania regione (region), southern Italy; it lies opposite the Sorrento peninsula, to which it was joined in prehistoric times. The island is a single block of limestone 3.9 miles (6.25 km) long, with a maximum width of 1.8 miles...
Capri Letters, The (work by Soldati)
...noia (1960; “The Tedium”; Eng. trans. Empty Canvas) stand out as particular achievements. Soldati, in works such as Le lettere da Capri (1953; The Capri Letters) and Le due città (1964; “The Two Cities”)—and in a later novel, L’incendio (1981; “The Fire”),...
Capriati, Jennifer (American tennis player)
American tennis player who first achieved success as a teenage prodigy....
Capriati, Jennifer Maria (American tennis player)
American tennis player who first achieved success as a teenage prodigy....
capric acid (chemistry)
...is an important component of cow’s milk. Goat’s milk is rich in fats containing the 6-, 8-, and 10-carbon acids: hexanoic (caproic), octanoic (caprylic), and decanoic (capric) acids, respectively. Common names for these three acids are derived from the Latin caper, meaning “goat.” Some hard cheeses (e.g., Swiss cheese) contain natural......
“Capricci” (works by Paganini)
Between 1801 and 1807 he wrote the 24 Capricci for unaccompanied violin, displaying the novel features of his technique, and the two sets of six sonatas for violin and guitar. He reappeared in Italy as a violinist in 1805 and was appointed director of music at Piombino by Napoleon’s sister, Élisa Bonaparte Baciocchi. He later gave recitals of his own compositions in man...
Capriccio (work by Strauss)
...have called Strauss’s masterpiece; and Arabella (1933), which closely resembles Der Rosenkavalier in many details. Capriccio (1942), his last opera, is an absorbing work that reanimates the old argument of whether words or music should take precedence in opera....
capriccio (music)
lively, loosely structured musical composition that is often humorous in character. As early as the 16th century the term was occasionally applied to canzonas, fantasias, and ricercari (often modelled on vocal imitative polyphony). Baroque composers from ...
capriccio (graphic arts)
...prison interiors, however, are examples of vedute ideate, which are realistically drawn though completely imaginary scenes. Guardi and Canaletto produced another form of veduta, the capriccio, in which architectural elements, though correct, are combined in a rather strange fashion—e.g., Canaletto’s drawing in which St. Peter’s in Rome is shown r...
Capriccio (work by Bach)
...century the term was occasionally applied to canzonas, fantasias, and ricercari (often modelled on vocal imitative polyphony). Baroque composers from Girolamo Frescobaldi to J.S. Bach wrote keyboard capriccios displaying strictly fugal as well as whimsical characteristics. Bach’s earliest dated keyboard work is his Capriccio “on the Departure of His Beloved Brother,”...
Capriccio sinfonico (work by Puccini)
...Amilcare Ponchielli, the composer of the opera La gioconda. On July 16, 1883, he received his diploma and presented as his graduation composition Capriccio sinfonico, an instrumental work that attracted the attention of influential musical circles in Milan. In the same year, he entered Le villi in a......
Caprichos, Los (work by Goya)
Francisco de Goya is hard to place in the historical development of the comedy of manners. His “Caprichos” (1796–98), etchings prepared by some of the most simple and trenchant brush drawings ever made, appeared in the last years of the 18th century and can be called comedies of manners only insofar as they are related to folk sayings and the bittersweet Spanish folk wisdom......
Capricorn (astronomy)
in astronomy, zodiacal constellation lying in the southern sky between Aquarius and Sagittarius, at about 21 hours right ascension and 20° south declination. Its stars are faint; Deneb Algedi (Arabic for “kid’s tail”) is the brightest star...
Capricorn, Tropic of (geography)
latitude approximately 23°27′ S of the terrestrial Equator. This latitude corresponds to the southernmost declination of the Sun’s ecliptic to the celestial equator. At the winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere)...
Capricorn-Bunker Group (island group, Australia)
cluster of 13 islands at the southern extremity of the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, on the Tropic of Capricorn between Capricorn Channel and Keppel Bay. They are true coral cays, comprising sandy detritus on coral ...
Capricornia (work by Herbert)
...culture: this discovery gave rise to the Jindyworobak movement, which had as its goal the freeing of Australian art from “alien” influences. By apt coincidence, Xavier Herbert’s Capricornia (1938) was published at this time. Herbert’s sprawling comic anarchy, his maverick vision, and the sense of remoteness from regulated society all derive from his Nort...
Capricornis (mammal)
goatlike mammal that ranges from Japan and Taiwan to western India, through eastern China, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan region. Serows belong either to the tribe Rupicaprini (goat antelopes) or, according to another view, to their own tribe (Naemorhedini), of the subfamily Caprinae ...
Capricornis crispus (mammal)
The Japanese serow (36–38 kg [79–84 pounds] and about 75 cm [30 inches] at shoulder height) is the only species not threatened (about 100,000 head in existence). It is endemic to the Japanese islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Once severely threatened because of overhunting and habitat loss, it was designated as a “special natural monument” in 1955. Since then the....
Capricornis sumatraensis (mammal)
The coloration of the mainland serow is extremely variable. The head, neck, and long mane are grizzled black, and the fur may turn rusty red on the shoulders, flanks, and lower thighs. There is a varying amount of white on the muzzle, throat, chest, and mane. Weight is about 90 kg (40 pounds) and shoulder height 110 cm (40 inches). Both sexes are similar in size. Mainland serows are......
Capricornis swinhoii (mammal)
The Formosan serow, a much smaller species (25–30 kg [55–66 pounds]), is from Taiwan and has woollier and softer pelage than the mainland serow. Its body coloration is brown to reddish and is yellowish on the chin, throat, and neck. Little is known about this species, and it is considered vulnerable to extinction....
Capricornus (astronomy)
in astronomy, zodiacal constellation lying in the southern sky between Aquarius and Sagittarius, at about 21 hours right ascension and 20° south declination. Its stars are faint; Deneb Algedi (Arabic for “kid’s tail”) is the brightest star...
caprifig (plant)
...staminate (male) or pistillate (female). Long-styled female flowers are characteristic of the fruits of most garden and orchard fig trees. Short-styled female flowers are found only in fruits of the caprifig tree and are adapted to the egg-laying habits of the fig wasp, or Blastophaga. Male flowers, which produce pollen, are found in caprifigs, usually near the apex....
Caprifoliaceae (plant family)
the honeysuckle family of the teasel order (Dipsacales), well known for its many ornamental shrubs and vines, primarily composed of north temperate species but including some tropical mountain plants. The family has 5 genera and 220 species, mostly wood...
Caprilli, Federico (Italian equestrian)
At the turn of the 20th century, Capt. Federico Caprilli, an Italian cavalry instructor, made a thorough study of the psychology and mechanics of locomotion of the horse. He completely revolutionized the established system by innovating the forward seat, a position and style of riding in which the rider’s weight is centred forward in the saddle, over the horse’s withers. Caprilli wro...
Caprimulgi (bird suborder)
Annotated classification...
Caprimulgidae (bird family)
bird family of the order Caprimulgiformes. Birds of this family are commonly called nightjars, from their jarring cries, or goatsuckers, from the ancient superstition that they used their very wide mouths to milk goats. They are insectivorous birds that take flying insects on the wing, usually at night. During the day they sleep on the ground or perched, usually lengthwise, on ...
caprimulgiform (order of birds)
any of about 120 species of soft-plumaged birds, the major groups of which are called nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, frogmouths, and owlet-frogmouths. The order also includes the aberrant oilbird of South America...
Caprimulgiformes (order of birds)
any of about 120 species of soft-plumaged birds, the major groups of which are called nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, frogmouths, and owlet-frogmouths. The order also includes the aberrant oilbird of South America...
Caprimulginae (bird)
any of about 60 to 70 species of birds that make up the subfamily Caprimulginae of the family Caprimulgidae and sometimes extended to include the nighthawks, subfamily Chordeilinae (see nighthawk). The name nightjar is sometimes applied to the entire order Caprimulgiformes. (See caprimulgiform.)...
Caprimulgus (bird)
...strange, or weirdly beautiful. The calls of caprimulgiforms are surrounded by an aura of mystery richly endowed to elicit interest and sometimes fear from humans. The name of the type genus Caprimulgus, goatsucker, derives from an ancient belief that the birds seen flitting about the goats at dusk were taking milk from the goats’ udders, a misconception no doubt fortified by the.....
Caprimulgus carolinensis (bird)
(species Caprimulgus carolinensis), nocturnal bird of the family Caprimulgidae, found in the swamps, rocky uplands, and pine woods of the southeastern United States, migrating to the West I...
Caprimulgus europaeus (bird)
The common nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) is representative of some 35 similar species making up the largest genus in the order Caprimulgiformes. It is characterized by its flat head, wide mouth fringed with bristles, large eyes, and soft plumage that results in noiseless flight, and it is about 30 cm (12 inches) long. It breeds throughout Europe and in western Asia, wintering in......
Caprimulgus inornatus (bird)
...(Macrodipteryx longipennis), which nests in a belt extending from Senegal in the west to Kenya in the east along the equatorial forest, migrates northward to avoid the wet season. The plain nightjar (Caprimulgus inornatus), on the other hand, nests in a dry belt from Mali in the west to the Red Sea and Kenya in the east during the rains and then migrates southward to......