Tiete \tya-'ta\ River River, south¬ eastern Brazil. Rising in the moun¬ tains near the Atlantic Ocean coast, it flows northwest about 700 mi (1,130 km) through central Sao Paulo state to join the Parana River. Several of the state’s large cities, including Sao Paulo, are located on or near it, but navigation on the river is impeded by its many falls and rapids.
Tiffany, Louis Comfort (b. Feb.
18, 1848, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d.
Jan. 17, 1933, New York City) U.S. painter, craftsman, philanthropist, decorator, and designer. The son of the famous jeweler Charles Louis Tiffany (1812-1902), he studied painting with American painter George Inness and in Paris; he was a recognized painter before he began to experiment with stained glass in 1875. He founded a glassmaking fac¬ tory in Queens, N.Y., in 1878. There he developed an iridescent glass he
Vase of Favrile glass made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York City, 1896; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
COURTESY OF THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Tiflis ► Tikal I 1909
called Favrile, which achieved widespread popularity in Europe. After 1900 Tiffany’s firm ventured into lamps, jewelry, pottery, and bibelots. He is internationally recognized as one of the greatest forces of the Art Nouveau style.
Tiflis See Tbilisi
tiger Reddish tan, striped great cat (Panthera tigris ) of forests, grass¬ lands, and swamps in eastern Russia, South Asia, Sumatra, and a few small parts of China. Tigers are solitary, nocturnal hunters, preying on medium-sized mammals (e.g., deer). Locality and subspecies determine size, colour, and stripes. Southern tigers, such as the Bengal tiger (P. tigris tigris), are smaller and more brightly coloured than northern ones, such as the rare Siberian tiger (P. tigris altaica ). Males grow to more than 3 ft (1 m) high and 7 ft (2.2 m) long, excluding the 3-ft (1-m) tail, and may weigh 350-640 lb (160-290 kg). Tigers live about 11 years. The persis¬ tent use of tiger parts as tonics or medicines, despite evidence refuting their efficacy, is rooted in the awe that the cat has inspired for millennia. Although internationally protected, tigers are seriously endangered; their populations shrank by more than 90% in the last century, and three sub¬ species are now extinct.
Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris ).
© SILVESTRIS/AUSTRALASIAN NATURE TRANSPARENCIES
tiger beetle Any of some 2,000 species (family Cicindelidae) of vora¬ cious beetles, found worldwide but mostly in the tropics and subtropics.
The larva waits at the top of its bur¬ row (up to 2 ft, or 0.7 m, deep) and grasps approaching insect prey with sicklelike jaws. Hooks on the abdo¬ men anchor it so that the struggling victim cannot pull away, and the prey is dragged into the burrow and eaten. The slender, long-legged adults, less than an inch (25 mm) long, have long jaws that can inflict a painful bite. Many are iridescent blue, green, orange, or scarlet.
tiger moth Any of more than 3,500 species (family Arctiidae) of moths, many with furry or hairy larvae called woolly bears. Most adults have a thick body and white, orange, or green wings. At rest, the wings are folded rooflike over the body. The fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea ) is a seri¬ ous pest. The caterpillars construct webs over leaves, sometimes cover¬ ing large areas with silken sheets. They pupate aboveground in a cocoon made of larval hairs and silk. The Isabella tiger moth (Isia isabella) attains a wingspan of 1.5-2 in. (37-50 mm). Black spots mark its abdomen and yellow wings.
tiger shark Potentially dangerous shark (Galeocerdo cuvieri, family Carcharhinidae), found worldwide in warm oceans, from the shoreline to the open sea. Up to 18 ft (5.5 m) long, the grayish tiger shark has a long, pointed upper tail lobe, and its large teeth are deeply notched along one side. This voracious shark eats fishes, other sharks, turtles, mollusks, birds, carrion, and garbage, including coal, tin cans, and clothing. It is a source of leather and liver oil. See also sand shark.
tiger swallowtail Any of several North American species of black- and-yellow swallowtail butterflies. The eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) is a large, widely distributed species. The yellow male has black margins and black stripes on the wings. The female is similarly marked in the north, where the black and distasteful pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor) does not occur; in the south, where the two coexist, the female tiger swallowtail is very often all or mostly black.
tigereye or tiger's-eye Semiprecious quartz gem displaying chatoy- ancy, a vertical luminescent band like that of a cat’s eye. Bands of par¬ allel, blue asbestos (crocidolite) fibres are first altered to iron oxides and then replaced by silica. The gem has a rich yellow to yellow-brown or brown colour and a fine golden lustre when it is polished. The best stones come from South Africa. See also cat's-eye.
Tiglath-pileser Vtig-.lath-pI-'le-zoA III (fl. 8th century bc) King of Assyria (r. 745-727 bc) who led the last and greatest phase of Assyrian expansion. On taking the throne, he immediately set about strengthening Assyria. He subdivided large prov¬ inces to quash independence move¬ ments, had officials report directly to him, and resettled tens of thousands of people to ensure loyalty. He defeated his northern neighbour,
Urartu (743 bc), then subjugated Syria and Palestine (734) and took over the throne of Babylon. See also Ashurbanipal; Sargon II.
tigon \'tI-gon\ or tiglon \'ti-gbn\
Zoo-bred offspring of a tiger and a lioness. The opposite cross, of a lion and a tigress, produces a liger. Dif¬ ferences in behavior and habitat make interbreeding of the tiger and lion unlikely in the wild. The tigon and the liger have features of both parents, in variable proportions, but are generally larger and darker than either. It is thought that most, if not all, male tigons and ligers are sterile; the females may be able to produce young.
Tig ray \'ti-,gra\ Historic region of northern Ethiopia. Its dramatic land¬ scape includes plateau regions more than 10,000 ft (3,000 m) high and plains below sea level. Though vegetation is sparse, the population engages in agriculture and stock raising. Tigray contains the core of the ancient Aksum kingdom, as well as Ethiopia’s oldest known town, the 3,000-year-old Yeha. It formerly controlled trade routes from the Red Sea to the empire in the south. Its status declined when it lost control of the coast in the 16th century; it was subsequently dominated by the south and was later threatened by the Egyptian, Sudanese, British, and Italian armies. A rebellion begun in 1975 against the Ethiopian government aggravated the effects of a disastrous drought and famine in 1984-85. In 1999 Ethiopia’s border war with Eritrea led to the displacement of more than 300,000 people in Tigray, and famine is a persistent threat.
Tigris \'t!-gros\ River Arabic Dijlah \'dij-b\ Turkish Dicle biblical Hiddekel River, Turkey and Iraq. It originates in the Taurus Mountains at Lake Hazar and flows 1,180 mi (1,900 km) southeast through Turkey and past Baghdad to unite with the Euphrates River at Al-Qurnah in south¬ eastern Iraq; there it forms the Shatt al-Arab. With the Euphrates it defined the ancient region of Mesopotamia. Important for its irrigation capacity, it gave rise to sustained civilization. The ruins of many ancient cities lie on its banks, including those of Nineveh, Calah, Ashur, Ctesiphon, and Seleu-
CIA.
Tijuana \te-'hwa-na\ City (pop., 2000: 1,148,681), northwestern Baja California, Mexico. It lies on the Tecate River near the Pacific Ocean, 12 mi (19 km) south of San Diego, Calif., U.S. It originated as a ranch settle¬ ment on a land grant in 1862 and developed as a border resort with gam¬ bling casinos. In the 20th century it became the main entry point to Mexico for U.S. tourists. It has many U.S.-owned assembly plants as well as food-processing plants and breweries.