THE BUTTERFLY. 
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close to him, and even touch his wings, and yet 
he will not fly. 
You remember the description I gave you of 
the jaws of the caterpillar, and what a great 
deal of work they had to do. The butterfly does 
not require any apparatus for eating. All she 
wants is to sip the juices of the flowers, and a 
trunk has been given her through which she can 
suck them up. 
The trunk is long and very flexible, for it is 
composed of a number of rings, after the fashion 
of an earth-worm’s body, which can, you know, 
twist itself about in every direction. It is formed 
of three distinct tubes; the two outer ones the 
butterfly is thought to use for drawing in air, 
though, like the caterpillar, she breathes through 
spiracles in the sides of her body, and it is only 
through the centre tube that honey is sucked up. 
The most curious part of this trunk is, that the 
butterfly can pull it in two, through its whole 
length, and unite it again at pleasure. When 
the two pieces are apart, you may see they are 
so grooved down the inner-side, that in fact they 
make the third tube by merely joining together 
again. The joining is effected by a beautiful 
apparatus of hooks or bands, that lace the two 
parts so closely, that the inner tube is quite 
air-tight. 
