Ghoulish Butterflies
A very strange example of the feeding habits of butterflies, which enjoy equally rotting-fruit and the nectar of flowers, is told me by an R.A.F. officer. He was stationed in Assam in 1942, close to the frontier with Burma, at the date of the great and terrible trek of refugees into India. They struggled their way (like the pioneers of our Chindits) across rivers, mountain ranges and jungles, and g large number of their company succumbed. One of them, while in hospital in North India, told his experiences to this English airman. He said that he owed his life to the butterflies! The bodies of those who had fallen by the way were covered with butterflies of great size and gaudiness. " As they flapped about he felt a dread and horror that he too would fall the victim of such incredible beauty " ; and the sight of their grim feeding gave him added strength and determination to carry on and reach India The psychology of the confession, as the officer suggests, is hardly less strange than the natural history.
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