The very popular story of Butterfly’s revenge is a somewhat obscured
version of an old theme—the Jataka story of The Quail’s Friends,
Francis and Thomas, 247–250. Compare Steel-Temple, Wide Awake Stories,
184; Gerber, Great Russian Animal Tales, Pub. Mod. Lang. Asso. of Am.
6: No. 2: 19–20; Grimm 58, The Dog and the Sparrow, discussed in Bolte
u. Polívka 1: 515–519.
Though common to-day, the story seems to be of comparatively late
introduction. Old Edwards, over eighty, heard it when he was “ripe.”
Compare Tremearne, 231.