_Strange food for tortoises and mice._ I am very much interested in the attempt to teach habits of scientific observation to the young people of our country, and therefore venture to send you two facts new to me in regard to the feeding habits of animals. Last summer I was passing through a grove, about twenty rods from the Housatonic river, when my attention was attracted by a large turtle (for reasons mentioned below, I think it was a land-tortoise, though I do not know one kind of turtle from another), with its neck stretched out to its utmost extent, busily engaged about something. As I drew near, it pulled in its head with a sharp hiss, and I saw that it was standing near a fungus, or toad-stool, about an inch thick and three inches across (when whole), nearly half of which looked as if it had been nibbled away; and, on looking at the tortoise’s mouth, I saw bits of the toad-stool sticking to it. On mentioning this to my brother (who knows far more about animals than I), he said, “That is queer, for I found a land-tortoise eagerly eating a toad-stool in my woods, this summer.” My brother lives on Long Island. For many months my sister and I have been puzzled by seeing a mouse in our room, though he had no apparent hiding-place. One window of ours always stands open at the top all summer, and below it is a thick woodbine. One evening in September, I was busily writing by this window, of which the blinds were closed, but the slats open, when I heard a tapping noise, which I thought was insects. Looking up, however, I saw a little mouse, which, on seeing me, disappeared through the slats of the blind. I sat quite still, and in a minute he came back, and, to my astonishment, began catching and eating the small insects which my light had attracted to the window. He was not a field-mouse, but an ordinary house-mouse, and could not have been driven to this diet by extreme hunger, for he was very plump. Perhaps these habits in mice and turtles may be well known, but, as I never heard of them, I venture to send them to you. Yours truly, V. Butler, Stockbridge, Mass. THE SENSITIVE PLANT OF TEXAS.