THE PEACOCK BUTTERFLY. 129 
time. He farther noticed, that these miraculous 
drops of what the people supposed bloody rain, were 
never found in the middle of the town, and appear- 
ed only in places bordering on the country ; and 
that they were not observed on houses higher than 
the ordinary flight of butterflies. M. de Peirese 
explained the phenomenon to many curious and 
learned individuals, and established it as an incon- 
trovertible fact, that the imagined shower of blood 
was in reality but the drops of a red liquid emitted 
by the butterflies, ‘The same idea seems to have 
heen entertained by Swammerdam, though he does 
not appear to haye verified it from personal obser- 
vation. 
Reaumur mentions an instance of a gardener at 
Rouen being much terrified by digging up some of 
the singular cases of the leaf-cutter bees. These he 
considered as the results of witchcraft, and as fore- 
boding some dreadful calamity. He exhibited them 
to the priest of the parish, who advised him to pro- 
ceed immediately to Paris, and show them to his 
master. But the gardener had more sense than his 
pastor, and went first to the eminent naturalist 
Nollet with them. He knew well what they 
were; and, while the astonished gardener eyed 
him with superstitious awe, Nollet opened one of 
the cases and pointed out the grub it contained, and 
thus dispelled his apprehensions.* 
* Reaumur, vi. p. 99, 
