THE HONEY-SUCKER. 25 



been injured by rubbing we now and then find a part 

 with the sculptured surfaces torn off on each side, 

 showing a plain central layer, so that at least three 

 layers two ornamented and one plain go to form a 

 filmy body, only a small fraction of the thickness of 

 paper. 



But there are other portions of a butterfly to claim 

 our interest besides its wondrous wings. 



On the creature's head are grouped together some 

 most beautiful and important organs. The most pecu- 

 liar of these is the long spiral " sucker," which extracts 

 the honied food from the blossoms to which its wings so 

 gracefully waft it. This organ is shown, slightly magnified, 

 at fig. 8, Plate II., and a most delicate piece of animal 

 mechanism it is. Any human workman would, to a 

 certainty, be not only puzzled, but thoroughly beaten, 

 in an attempt to construct a tube little thicker than a 

 horse-hair, yet composed throughout its length of two 

 distinct pieces, capable of being separated at pleasure, 

 and then joined again so as to form an air-tight tube. 

 This redoubtable problem, however, is solved in the 

 construction of this curious little instrument that every 

 butterfly carries. 



The junction of the two grooved surfaces that form 

 the tube is effected by the same contrivance that re- 

 unites the web of a feather when it has been pulled 

 apart. We all know how completely it is made whole 

 again, and on examining by what means this result is 

 brought about, we find that it is by the interlacing of a 



