Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/477

 CREEPER CRMIEUX 473 the genus certhia (Linn.), belongs our common brown creeper (C. familiaris, Linn.). The bill is moderate, slender, curved, with com- pressed sides and acute tip ; the wings are moderate and rounded ; the tail long and grad- uated, with the ends of the feathers rigid and acute ; tarsi shorter than the middle toe ; all the toes long and slender, with curved and sharp claws. There are two species, one inhab- iting Asia, and the other Europe and North America; those who consider the American bird different, because found here, without being able to give any specific characters for it, may call it G. Americana (Bonap.). The creepers are found wherever trees are thick, climbing up the trunks with the aid of the tail, running along and on the under surface of branches in search of insects concealed in the bark. The upper parts of our species are reddish brown, the head dark, the rump light- er ; all the feathers have a central dull whitish streak ; wings deep brown, the coverts tipped with dull yellow, and the secondaries barred with the same ; lower parts and band over eye Creeper, with Claw and Tail Feather. silvery white ; sides tinged with brown ; webs of the quills, except of the outer three, crossed with a dull yellowish band ; tail yellowish brown; length of bird 5 inches, extent of wings 8-J-; the female is smaller and darker. It is extensively distributed, alighting on all kinds of trees, preferring the tallest, in com- pany with the smaller woodpeckers and nut- hatches. It breeds in holes in trees, often taking the abandoned nests of woodpeckers and squirrels ; the eggs are six to eight, of a yellowish white color, with irregular purplish dots, especially at the larger end. It feeds on ants, larvse, small insects, and particles of lichens, in the winter coming into the orchards near houses. It is an exceedingly active and restless bird, shooting down from the to'p of an examined tree to the base of another, which it ascends as before. To the same family belong the tree-creepers (dendrocolaptince), larger birds, with long curved bills, peculiar to South America ; their habits are the same as those of the genus certhia. The black and white creeper is the mniotilta varia (Vieill.), of the family sylvicolidce. CREFELD (Ger. ffrefeld), a town of Rhenish Prussia, the principal seat of silk and velvet manufacture in Prussia, connected by railway with Cologne and Dusseldorf, 12 m. N. W. of the latter city; pop. in 1871, 57,128. Its most im- portant public edifices are a Roman Catholic church, two Protestant churches, a synagogue, an orphan asylum, and a deaf and dumb insti- tution. The silk manufacture was introduced in the 17th century by a colony of Huguenot refugees. It employs about 6,000 persons in the town and its vicinity ; and the annual pro- ducts are estimated at $7,500,000. In 1871 the exports to the United States amounted to about $2,256,000. There are also manufacto- ries of woollen, cotton, and linen fabrics, pot- teries, tanneries, and distilleries. It was for- merly a place of considerable strength, and its walls are still standing. CREICHTON, John, an Irish soldier of for- tune, born in the county of Donegal in 1648, died in 1733. He entered the horse guards of Charles II., served against the Covenanters of Scotland, and when James II. was succeeded on the throne by William III. attempted to excite a rebellion, but was imprisoned at Edin- burgh. After several years he was permitted to return to Ireland. His "Memoirs," revised by Swift, appeared in 1731, and contain curious particulars relative to the reigns of Charles II. and James II., and notices of characters and events which served as materials for Sir Wal- ter Scott in writing " Old Mortality." CRELLE, August Leopold, a German archi- tect and mathematician, born at Eichwerder, March 11, 1780, died in Berlin, Oct. 6, 1855. He superintended the construction of roads and railways, was employed as a mathemati- cian in the ministry of public instruction, and edited a mathematical periodical (50 vols., 1826-'55), and one for architecture (30 vols., 1828-'51). CREMA, a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province and 22 m. N. W. of the city of Cre- mona, on the Serio, and on the railway from Cremona to Bergamo ; pop. about 8,000. It is well built and fortified, and has several hand- some churches and palaces, as well as manu- factories of lace, hats, thread, and silk. It is the seat of a bishop, and has a gymnasium and a theatre. Crema was founded in the 6th cen- tury by some fugitives whom the oppressions of Alboin, the first Lombard king of Italy, had driven from their homes. During the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines it was destroyed by Frederick I. after a most obstinate resist- ance, but was afterward rebuilt. In 1797 it was captured by the French. CRK.MIKI'X, Isaac Adolphe, a French lawyer and statesman, born of Jewish parents at Nimes, April 30, 1796. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar of his native town in 1817. Having acquired a considerable reputa- tion by his eloquence and boldness in the de- fence of some victims of the royalist reaction in the south of France, he removed to Paris