340 NATURAL HISTORY 



amusement, his sole object. And as people 

 of this cast have seldom more than one 

 point in view, so this lad exerted all his few 

 faculties on this one pursuit. In the Win- 

 ter he dosed away his time, within his 

 father's house, by the fire-side, in a kind of 

 torpid state, seldom departing from the 

 chimney-corner; but in the Summer he was 

 all alert, and in quest of his game in the 

 fields, and on sunny-banks. Honey-bees, 

 humble-bees, and wasps, were his prey 

 wherever he found them : he had no appre- 

 hensions from their stings, but would seize 

 them nudis manibus^ and at once disarm 

 them of their weapons, and suck their bodies 

 for the sake of their honey-bags. Some- 

 times he would fill his bosom between his 

 shirt and his skin with a number of these 

 captives : and sometimes would confine 

 them in bottles. He was a very merops 

 apiaster, or bee-bird ; and very injurious 

 to men that kept bees ; for he would slide 

 into their bee-gardens, and, sitting down 

 before the stools, would rap with his finger 

 on the hives, and so take the bees as they 



