Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-02-18
For the Freeman.
A Chat with Farmers.
ABOUT ALTERNATING ANIMALS.
BY AGRICOLA.

One of the most remarkable reptiles is
the frog. At first tadpole. it passes
through eight stages of development be-
fore il reaches maturity. What is still
more remarkable, from genuine fish it
becomes breathing animal.
Our readers have all seen in the shall
lows of rivers and bitches huge masses Of
transparent, jelly-like substance, prolusely
dotted with black spots. Each Of these
spots is one egg of frog. And here is a
very remarkable fact This mass of spawn
laid by a single frog. is forty or fifty times
larger than the parent frog herself! The
eggs are always laid under water. and
when first deposited are covered with Il
slight but firm membranous envelope,
which takes up very little space. Now
this envelope begins TO absorb water, and
in short time the eggs are enclosed in
the center of these jelly-like globes with n
much increased capacity. After various
other changes in the eggs, living form
begins to appear. At first = black, grub
like creature, with large head and fiat
tened tail appears. By degrees it fights
its way out of its confinement, into the
world of conflict and peril, under the
name tadpole, pollywog, toe bitter or horse
nail.
The first stages of this strange lite are
TO be in water. Hence the animal is
furnished with aquatic breathing appara-
lus, not unlike the gills of the fish. When
these organs have attained full size, they
begin to diminish, and the body and head
at the same time begin to change. In a
short time they entirely disappear, being
drawn into the cavity of the chest. Now
just behind the head, two LITTLE projections
appear, through the skin, which soon
develop into legs.
But the tadpole continues to wiggle bis
way through the water, regardless of its
new feet. Soon another pair Of legs MAKE
their appearance, and the tail is gradually
absorbed into the body. 1t does not dror
off, as some suppose, but it is taken IN
Lungs are now developed. and the tadpolt
comes out young frog, with short tai
still in view. A little later and the tai
disappears, aud the real frog with his ioul
legs is ready for his busy hopping life
The transformation is now complete, and
the changes have been internal us well as
external. The young tadpole is at first 4
real fish. with fsh-like bones, fish-lke
gills, and Ash like heart As age advances
these organs receive corresponding modi
fications, until aquatic life is changed tt
frog life, the breathing in water to the
breathing in air. These little new formed
frogs now come to land in search of worms
and insects, and in great numbers. They
do not rain doUn, as some suppose. MOI
is it strange that they are SO numerous
since each female frog of the hundreds il
each locality may produce a thousand
young ones. They grow rapidly during
the summer and autumn, and in winte
plunga into the mud and 90 to sleep
This life of the tadpole is perilous, a.
large numbers of them are devoured b,
fishes, by other reptiles and by each other
and when full grown they are the common
food for large class of animals.
The frog is not only graceful ant
harmless animal, but also useful, as h
destroys numerous noxious insects.
The largest species in the United State
is the bull frog, which often measures, il
his extended state, some eighteen o
twenty one inches. He is the most aquatic
of the fregs, and an excellent swimmer
The bull frog lives upon small animal
which he has the power to catch.
The spring frog is fond of springs AM
cold water, and hence his name. He feed
on worms and insects, and is common
from Maine TO Virginia.
The marsh frog is pale brown above
with two longitudinal rows of dark brow
spots on the back and sides, and yellow
below.
The shad frog is the most beautiful of al
the species. He is good on the leap
When alarmed he will leap eight or tel
feet.
Then we have the pale, reddish brow
and yellowish white wood frog, which
found from Michigan to the Carolinas
the crying frog which lives at the south
and the common frog which differs fror
all American species. There are man
other species named which must b
omitted.
Frogs POSSIBLY twelve feet long, ur
doubtedly leaped and croaked in the ar
cient marshes in remote geological age: