128 



Insects, 



suit. In the winter he dozed away his time, within his father's house, by the fire-sid( 

 in a kind of torpid state, seldom departing from the chimney-corner ; but in the suraJ 

 raer he was all alert, and in quest of his game in the fields and on sunny banks. Hoj 

 ney-bees, humble-bees, and wasps, were his prey wherever he found them : he had n< 

 apprehensions from their stings, but would seize them nudis manibus, and at once dis 

 arm them of their weapons, and suck their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. 

 Sometimes he would fiU his bosom between his shirt and his skin with a number ol 

 these captives: and sometimes would confine them in bottles. He was a very Merops 

 apiaster or bee-bird ; and very injurious to men who kept bees ; for he would slide in- 

 to their bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, would rap with his finger oi 

 the hives, and so take the bees as they came out. He has been known to overturi 

 hives for the sake of the honey, of which he was passionately fond. When metheglii 

 was making, he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of wha(| 

 he called bee-wine. As he ran about, he used to make a humming noise with his lips 

 resembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and sallow, and of a cadaverous 

 complexion ; and, except in his favourite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit 

 discovered no manner of understanding. Had his capacity been better, and directec 

 to the same object, he had perhaps abated much of our wonder at the feats of a moi 

 modern exhibitor of bees; and we may justly say of him now, 



' Thou, 

 Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 

 Shouldst Wildman be.' 



" When a tall youth, he was removed from hence to a distant village, where h« 

 died, as I understand, before he arrived at manhood." — Whitens Natural History 

 Selhome : ivith Notes by the Rev. L. Jenyns. Van Voorst^ 1843. p. 264. 



Note on a Shower of Aphides. 



" As we have remarked above, that insects are often conveyed from one country 

 another in a very unaccountable manner, I shall here mention an emigration of sraal 

 Aphides, which was observed in the village of Selborne no longer ago than August th^ 

 1st, 1785. 



" At about three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was very hot, the pec 

 pie of this village were surprised by a shower of Aphides, or smother-flies, which fel] 

 in these parts. Those that were walking in the street at that juncture, found themJ 

 selves covered with these insects, which settled also on the hedges and gardens, black-j 

 ening all the vegetables where they alighted. My annuals were discoloured with them,] 

 and the stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over for six days after. These ar- 

 mies were then, no doubt, in a state of emigration, and shifting their quarters ; an( 

 might have come, as far as we know, from the great hop plantations of Kent or Sus- 

 sex, the wind being all that day in the easterly quarter. They were observed at th« 

 same time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the lane from Farnhara 

 Alton."— /f/. p. 341. 



Note on Fleas infesting the holes of the Sand-martin, 



White observes that the old holes of the sand-martin are forsaken, and thinks il 

 may arise from their so abounding with fleas as to become untenantable. He lu 

 seen these fleas swarming at the mouth of the holes, like bees on the stools of theii 

 hives.— /</. p. 236. 



