S I T 



S I T 



SITHONII, a people of Thrace, near the Euxine fea, 

 among whom Orpheus was born. 



SITIAj a town of Spain, which had a voice in the 

 affembly of Cordova. 



SITICINES, amonij the Romans, perfons who founded 

 a kind of trumpet, having a very mournful tone, at the 

 burying of the dead. 



SITJES, in Geography, a town of Spain, in the province 

 of Catalonia ; 12 miles S.W. of Barcelona. 



SITIFIS, in ylticient Geography, a town of Mauritania 

 Casfarienlis, which became the capital of one of the Mauri- 

 tanias, to which it gave name. Sec Sitipha. 



SITIGNAK, in Gfo^r<7//7,oneof the Fox idands, in the 

 North Pacific ocean. N. lat. 53° 30'. E. long. 117° 14'. 



SITINAGUR, a town of Hindooitan, in Tellingana ; 

 6 miles N. of Indelavoy. 



SITIPHA, or SiTiFl Colonia, Settaf, in Ancient Geogra- 

 phy, a town of Africa, and the metropolis of Mauritania 

 Sitifenfis. It was fituatcd in the interior of the country 

 towards the S.E. of Saldje. 



SITIOGOGUS, a river of Afia, in the Perlide, which 

 ran into the Perfian gulf. 



SITODIUM, in Botany, Gsertn. v. i. 344. t. 71, 72, a 

 name originally applied to the genus aftbrding the celebrated 

 bread-fruit, by fir Jofeph Banks and Dr. Solander, and de- 

 rived from iz-ilo;, bread, food, or proviji on. This name has given 

 way to Artocarpus ; fee that article, and Radermaciiia. 



SITOMAGUM, or Sitomagus, in indent Geography, 

 a town of the ifle of Albion, in the country of the Iceni, 

 between Cambretonium and Venta Icenorun, according to 

 Antonine's Itinerary. 



SITON, a town of Greece, in ThefTaly. 



SITONiE, IiTivzi, among the Athenians, ofiicers ap- 

 pointed to lay in corn for the ufe of the city, for which 

 purpofe the ta.jjiiot.c in: ^mKnaiuc, or the public treafurer, 

 was to furni(h them with as much money as they had 

 occafion for. Potter, Archa;ol. Graec. lib. i. cap. 15. 

 torn. i. p. 83. 



SITONE, m Ancient Geography, a town of Macedonia, in 

 the vicinity of mount Atlios. 



SITONES, the name of one of the three principal clafles 

 of people who inhabited Scandinavia, beyond mount Savos, 

 and bounded by the fea to the weit and the fouth. 



SITOPHYLAX, IiTOv'uA^s) formed from o-ilo, ro/-n, and 

 ?H'^a.J, keeper, in Antiquity, an Athenian magillrate, who had 

 the fupermtcndance of the corn ; and was to take care that 

 nobody bought more than was necefiary for the provifion 

 of his family. 



By the Attic laws, particular perfons were prohibited buy- 

 ing more than fifty meafures of wheat a man ; of thofe mea- 

 fures, we mean, called tpofuai, and the fitophylax was to look 

 to the obfervation of this law. It was a capital crime to 

 prevaricate in it. 



There were fifteen of thefe fitophylaces ; ten for the city, 

 and five for the Pirseus. 



SITORE, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in the 

 province of Tinevelly ; 10 miles N. of Falamcottn. 



SITPOUR, a town of Hindooftan, in the fubah of MouU 

 tan, on the Indus ; 30 miles N.W. of Moultan. 



SITRIGy\LLY, a town of Hindooftan, in Myfore ; 

 34 miles N.N.E of Cliitteldroog. 



SITTA, the Nuthatch, in Ornithology, a genus of birds 

 of the order Picoe, of which the generic charafter is, Bill 

 iubulate, roundifh, ftraight, entire ; tl'.e upper mandible is 

 a little longer, comprciitd, and angular at the tip ; tongue 

 jagged, ftiort, horny at the tip ; the noftriU are I'mnll, co- 



vered with briftles ; the feet are formed for vralking ; the 

 hind-toe is long. Gmelin reckons twelve 



Species. 



* EuROP^A ; European Nuthatch. Cinereous, beneath 

 reddifli ; the tail-feathers black ; the four lateral ones be- 

 neath are tipt with white. It weighs nearly an ounce; it» 

 length is five inches ; the bdl is Itrong and ilraight, and 

 about three-quarters of an inch lonij ; the upper mandible is 

 black, the lower white ; the irides hazel ; the crown of the 

 head, back, and coverts of the wings, are of a fine blucifh- 

 grey ; a black ilroke pafles over the eye from the mouth ; 

 the checks and chin are white ; the breaft and belly are of a 

 dull orange-colour ; the quill-feathers are duilcy ; the wings 

 underneath are marked with two fpots, one white, at the 

 root of the exterior quills, the other black, at the joint of 

 the baftard-wing ; the tail confifts of twelve feathers, the 

 two middle are grey, the two exterior feathers tipped with 

 grey, then fucceeds a tranfverfe fpot, beneath that the reft 

 is black ; the legs are of a pale yellow ; the back toe very 

 flrong, and the claws large. Such is Mr. Pennant's de- 

 fcription of the European nuthatch, who adds, that " this 

 bird runs up and down the bodies of trees like the wood- 

 pecker tribe, and feeds not only on infefts but on nuts, of 

 which it lays up a confiderable quantity, as winter provi- 

 fion, in the hollows of trees. It breeds likewife in the hoi- 

 lows of trees ; and if the entrance be too Urge, it ftops up 

 part of it with clay, leaving only room enough for admilTion. 

 In autumn it begins a chattering noife, being filent the 

 greater part of the year. This bird makes its neft of dead 

 leaves, molUy of the oak, which it heaps together without 

 much order. It lays fix or feven eggs, which are white, 

 fpotted with rult colour, fo exadly like thofe of the great 

 titmoufe, that it is almoft impoffible to diftinguilh them. 

 No perfecution will force this little bird from its habitation, 

 when fitting : it defends its neft to thelaft extremity, ftrikes 

 the invader with its bill and wings, and makes a hifling 

 noife ; and after every effort of defence, will fuller itfelf to 

 be taken in hand, rather than quit its poft." 



" The nuthatch," fays colonel Montague, in his Orni- 

 thological Didtionary, " is more expert in climbing than 

 the woodpecker ; for it runs in all directions up and down a 

 tree, whereas the other is never obferved to defccnd : the 

 ftiff tail of thofe birds fupport them in the aft of climbing 

 and hacking. The flexible tail of the nuthatch gives it no 

 fuch advantage, nor does it feem to want it ; for its mod 

 favourite pofition, when breaking a nut, is witli the head 

 downwards. In autumn it is no uncommon thing to find, 

 in the crevices of the bark of an old tree, a great many 

 broken nut-(hells the work of this bird, who repeatedly 

 returns to the fame fpot for this purpole. When it has 

 fixed the nut firmly in a chink, it turns on all fide?, in 

 order to ftrike it with the moil advantage. This, with the 

 common hazel-nut, is a work of fomc labour ; but it breaks 

 the filberd with cafe. In defeft of fuch food, infetts and 

 their larvas are fought after among the mofs on trees, and 

 old thatched buildings. It is commonly met with about 

 orchards, and is fometimes feon, i)i the cider feafon, picking 

 the feeds from the refufe of the prcffed apples. The note is 

 various : in the fpring it has a remarkably loud flirill whilUe, 

 which ceafes after incubation ; in autumn is a double re- 

 iterated cry." There is a variety, called the little nut- 

 hatch, which is mucli fmaller tlian the common nutliatch, 

 and of a more noity difpofition. It rcfidca in Cmilar fitua- 

 tions, and is equally folitary ; alfociating only with its mate, 

 and attacking any other it may happen to fee. 



Canadensis ; 



