THE CONVICT TRAIL 205 



glade. This glade was my private property, 

 and the way by which one reached it from the 

 nearby Convict Trail was a pressure trail, not a 

 cut one. One pushed one's way through the 

 reeds, which flew back into place and revealed 

 nothing. Lifting my eyes from the tragedies 

 of a hastening column of army ants, I saw that 

 an unusual number of heliconias were flitting 

 about the glade, both species, the Reds and the 

 Yellows. All were fluttering slowly about and 

 as I watched, one by one they alighted on the 

 very tips of bare twigs, upside down with closed 

 wings. In this position they were almost in- 

 visible, even a side view showing only the sub- 

 dued under-wing pigments which blended with 

 the pastel colors of twilight in the glade, reflected 

 from variegated leaves and from the opening 

 blossoms of the scarlet passion vine. Perhaps 

 the most significant fact of this sleeping posture, 

 was the very evident protection it afforded to 

 butterflies which in motion during their waking 

 hours are undoubtedly warningly colored and 

 advertised to the world as inedible. Hanging 

 perpendicularly beneath the twig, although they 

 were almost in the open with little or no foliage 

 overhead, yet they presented no surface to the 



