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NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER XXYII. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Sejlborne, Dec. 12, 1775. 
E had in this village, more than twenty years 
ago, an idiot boy, whom I well remember, 
who, from a child, showed a strong propen- 
sity to bees ; they were his food, his amuse- 
ment, 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 
winter he dozed away his time, within his father^s house, 
by the fireside, 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 apprehensions 
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. Sometimes 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 came out. He has been known to 
overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was 
passionately fond. Where metheglin was making he would 
linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of 
what 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 under- 
