Willie J. M.—In gardens and hot-houses, where they are not liable to accident, toads have been known to attain the age of thirty-five and even forty years. The wonderful stories sometimes told of living toads being found imbedded in solid rock, where they must have been imprisoned for ages, or in the heart of ancient trees, are not well authenticated, and such cases have never come under the observation of scientific men.
New York City.
I am very much obliged to you for telling me how to feed and house my land turtle. I have also three water turtles, one bull-frog, two large toads, and twenty small toads. Please tell me how to feed them. I keep them in a large yard, and I never feed them, so I often wonder how they live. Your paper is getting better every week, and the story about "Photogen and Nycteris" is about the best you have published.
Lyman C.
Your toads have found plenty of insects for food in the yard where you keep them. They might be taught to eat sugar, but they prefer a diet of worms, ants, and small bugs. They will probably crawl under a stone or into some hole, and lie numb all winter. Bull-frogs also eat worms and insects, and very large ones are said to eat even small animals, such as mice and moles. Water turtles eat the stems of water-weeds and small mollusks, but they can live a long time without food. They might eat bits of bread. You can try and see. Both they and your bull-frog would be grateful if you gave them a tank of water to swim in.
Welcome letters are acknowledged from Mamie T., Orange, New Jersey; Althea B., Macon City, Missouri; F. Coggswell, Hudson, Wisconsin; H. W. Singer, Cincinnati, Ohio; Ernest B. C., Shelbyville, Tennessee; Willie E. H., Hartford, Connecticut; and Dorsey Coate, Wabash, Indiana.
