St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1894-01-13
A BUTTERFLY'S BATH.

Standing on the banks of the Hop
River i'll jamaica one brilliant July day,
watching the dragon-hics, or "da1ning
needless durting over the water, | sew
Il sight that was entirc y new to me, and
one that filled he with wonder.
\ beautiful butterfly, of sort
common in the West Indies, known to
the naturali>ts as Nictorina Stcnelcs,
and oddly banded with pale green and
deep black bars 9cross its wings, f1oatcd
laziIy down to the waters edge and
settled on the damp sand.
Walking quickly to the very edge of
the water, where the breeze sent in little
ripping waves, the butterfly wadcd in
so that its body ard head were com
plctcly submerged, and then slowly beat
Its WINGS 10 and fro, seemingly in an
pttG1npt to cover them with the water
also. Of course it could not do this, for
it was so light in proportion to the eX-
panSc Of its wings that whenever it at
tempted to force them under the water
its feet lost their hold on the ground and
for an instant it ioated on the surface.
Quickly flying up from this perilous
position, it reganed tho shore and again
began the attempt to get entirely under
water.
All this was a most interesting spec
taclc to me, and was entirely at loss
to understand its nearing. | had been
student of butterflies Tor nearly twenty
five years and collector in many diff
fcrent countries, yet | had never wit
messed such a sirht before
The weather was not especially warm,
in fact ''the DOCTOR" us the ,Jamaicans
call the strong sea breeze that daily
makes life more endurablc, was unusually
cool that day. So it could hardly be Tor
the purpose of cooling itself that the in
sect INDUCED in these strange proceed
ings, or it would have been a sight long
siuce familiar to me and to other collec-
tors. | WAS we'll aware that butterflies
do get overheated and out of breath;
often after Watching two OF them fight
ing furiously in the hot sunshine, or
having raced them myself across the
fields. I had seen them Tapping their
wings lightly up and down, thereby
forcing the sir more rapidly through the
little holes at the base of the wings
through which they do their breathing,
and thus cooling themselves off.
Failing to fathom such queer AMI ap-
parently unnatural actions on the part
of this butterfiy,-@@ just preparing TO
capture it TO make closer examination
when l was thwarted by third party.
Evidently | had not been the only in
terested watcher, for at that instant @
whip poor-will dashed out from the
gloom Of the bordering woods and in his
attempt to capture the butterfly effect
ually frightened it away.
1t WAS some months after this, on
another stream in Jamaica, that saw
precisely the same performance repeated
again on the part Of the beautiful
banded Nictorina. This time however,
| was more fortunate, and quickly had
the butterfly in my net and moment
after it was between my fingers and
under the powerful lens, which is my
constant pocket companion.
At once all was clear to me, for here
and there on the hairy covering of its
velvety body, but especially near the
bases of the wings. were little bright
carmine patches, which on close examin-
alton, after stirring them up with pin,
proved to be made up of scores of tiny
red parasites
Holding the butterfly carefully be
tween my thumb and finger by the wings