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.
{p. 255}