The herald., 1898-12-04
WHERE BUTTERFLIES SLEEP
To Them Certain Spot on a Ceiling
Is Home

As animals beds are almost the only piece
of furniture which they construct, so their
sleeping places or bedrooms represent most
nearly their notion of "home." 1t is chosen
for some qualities which strike the owner
as suitable for rest and quiet, and from that
moment it arouses in the animal mind somo
part of the truman sentiment which we
know as "Loye of home
1t is sentiment, not a mental process
and is exhibited by creatures which are not
commonly credited with memory or the
power of thought. Some butterflies, tor
example, return regularly to the same place
to sleep, and their proverbial fiightiness
does not prevent them from entertaining
the sentiment of home. The first vind1ca.
ton of butterfly memory was occasioned by
the regularity with which small butterfly
named Precis Iphita returned to sleep in
veranda of a musical club at Manghasar, IN
the Dutch East India islands. Mr. Z.
Piepers. a member of the Dutch Entomol-
ogical society, noticed that this butterfly re-
turned to the same place on the ceiling DUR
ing the evening.
In the early day it was absent, but at
nightfall. in spite of the brilliant illumina-
ton of the veranda it was again sleeping in
the same spot.
1T was not to be found in the daytime,
being probably absent on business" writes
Mr.. Piepers; "but as civilization has not
advanced SO far in Manghasar that it is
there considered necessary to drive away
every harmless creature which ventures into
human dwelling, l had the pleasure of
admirinq the memory of this butterfly for
six consecutive nights. Then some acci-
dent probably befel it, for | never say
any trace of it again"
1t is difficult to imagine spot with less
domestic features to adorn the home than
a piece Of bare ceiling of tropical YER
andu. but the attachment of animals to
their chosen sleeping place must rest upon
some preference quite clear to their own
consciousness, though not evident to us. In
some instances the ground of choice is in
teligble. Many of the small blue British
butterflies have grayish spotted backs to
their wings. AT night they fly regularly
to sheltered corners on the chalk downs
where they live, alght head-downward ON
the tops of the grasses which there Hourlsh,
and closing and lowering their wings as far
as possible, lock- exactly like seed head on
the grasses. If the night is cold they creep
down the stem and sleep in shelter among
the thick lower growth of grass.
Sparrows, which appear to go to roost in
companies, and sometimes do SO, after
vast amount of talk and fuss, do not rest
cuddled up against one another like star.
llings or chickens, but have private holes
and corners to sleep in. A London spar
row for two years occupied sleeping home
almost as bare of furniture as the ceiling
which the East Indian butterfly frequented.
II came every night in winter to sleep on a
marrow ledge under the portico of house
1 in Onslow square.
Above was the bare whtewashed top
of the portico, there were no cozy corners,
and at eighteen inches from the sparrow was
the gaslt portico lamp. There every even
ing it slept, and guests leaving the house
seldom failed to look up and see the little
bird fast asleep in its enormous white bed.
room. It's regular return during two win.
ters Is evidence that it regarded this as ito
home.-New York Evening Sun.