252 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



proboscis is kept tightly coiled at the entrance to 

 the insect's mouth. When it finds a flower to its 

 taste, it uncoils this spiral and extends the proboscis 

 in a long thread which plunges into the narrow- 

 necked bottle and proceeds to suck up the coveted 

 drop. If we wished to drink from a flask of similar 

 shape, we should use a straw or reed. Its proboscis 

 is the butterfly's straw with which it takes its re- 

 freshment from the flowers. 



"As with other insects, the butterfly is at first 

 a larva or worm, very different, you understand, 

 from what the creature will afterward become. The 

 larvae of butterflies are nothing in the world but cat- 

 erpillars. ' ' 



"Oh, how disgusting!" cried Emile, making a wry 

 face. 



"But nevertheless so it 

 is," proceeded his uncle. 

 "Caterpillars, repugnant 

 creatures to us, change into 

 those magnificent butterflies 

 that we are never tired of 

 admiring. What was ugly 

 becomes beautiful, what was 

 frightful finds itself the 



cterpiiiar P roud Possessor of grace 



and charm. 



"There are some caterpillars that have the skin 



quite naked and mottled with various colors in a 



manner not unpleasing to the eye. To touch these 



worms, even to handle them, inspires little or no 



