124 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



the pair of large whites asleep on a flower, 

 and rushing back for the camera, made a number 

 of exposures upon them, but to small purpose, 

 as development proved that there had not been 

 sufficient light whereby to make good negatives. 



Determining to rise before the butterflies next 

 morning, I left my bed at daybreak, and went 

 forth with the apparatus, to find that a very 

 heavy dew had fallen throughout the night 

 Upon reaching the scene of operations I dis- 

 covered that the wings and antennae of the 

 butterflies and petals of the flower upon which 

 they rested were covered with minute beads of 

 dew. This greatly interested me, and after ex- 

 posing half a dozen plates, I stood by and waited 

 until the sun rose to see what would happen 

 when it had attained sufficient power to dissipate 

 the moisture. Directly the globules of water had 

 evaporated, the butterflies jumped up, and flew 

 away, apparently not one whit the worse for 

 their night's outing in unorthodox quarters. 



The blue butterfly (Lycczna icarus} habitually 

 sleeps in exposed places where it is swayed to 

 and fro by the wind, lashed with rain, and be- 

 sprinkled with dewdrops, but always more or 

 less upside down, as shown in the illustration 

 on page 128. 



The peacock butterfly is one of our largest 

 and most resplendent diurnal iepidopterous in- 



