"The Butterfly" is an English Country Dance tune in cut time and A Major. The parts are played ABA'. The tune is a folk-process derivation of the song "I'd Be a Butterfly" which has words and melody by English dramatist and song writer Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1829). It is not the same tune as the Irish slip-jig "The Butterfly". English collector Cecil Sharp had the tune in 1909 from fiddler William Davies, originally from Wales, but who was then a parish clerk in Winchcombe, Glocestershire. Davies played for the Winchcombe morris team. Sharp also transcribed the tune from Thomas Swallow, also a fiddler, from Lower Guiting. It was printed in Barnes' English Country Dance Tunes (1986), Karpeles & Schofield's A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs (1951), Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984) and Sharp's Country Dance Tunes (1909).