The Penn's Grove record., 1884-08-02
Frog Shooting

The frog is a homely creature, but
every year it becomes more valuable in
trinsically as a marketable product of
fresh water. 1t is now esteemed as
| game in the restaurants, and frogs
| frlcasseed in cream call for 40 cents.
The restauranteuT pays abOutj0 cents a
| dozen for them. They are sold like
terrapins, and If under six inches from
tip to tip they are not ''counts." The
American encyclopedia says that the
frog is a batrachlan reptile of the anOu-
rous order, embracing such thorough
bred groups as the ranidG and hyladG.
The ranida is, therefore, the %''anOurous
natrachian reptilen which we deYQur
with cream sauce and pay 40 cents for.
The hyla is a tree-frog, with warts on
his back, and Is not built for the table.
The small boy used to kill frogs 10 years
ago on the mill-ponds with stones and
trade them off in town for enough to
buy ''~alley-taws'' or ''lignum-tops'
with. Now able-bodied men armed
with shOt-guns go out and make a good
days wages by killing acouple of dozen
or so. Sportsmen yer go after them
with cat-rides and shoot them as they
squat on the banks of a stream or pond
with true sportsmanlike glee. Epicures
devour them greedily.
The ranidB are ordinarily known as
bull-frogs, because when they obtain
old age they can raise as much fuss
along a river bank at night as a herd of
Texas cattle. The boys call them
''bloodies, " the name being al abbre-
Walton of ''bloody-nOuns," the pronun-
citation of the compound word in gut
tuTal voice being similar to a stave Of
the ranida's evening %serenade.
The frog spends most of his time in
the water. when he loafs under a stone,
but he can hop across country when his
native pond dries up i'll a style that
would discount an Arabian camel
making for an oasis. When he finds
another pool of water he staysthere and
makes himself comfortable. Occasion
ally he will stop and spend some time
in a moist locality, where there is moth
ing but ooz and damp leaves. He has
four nonpalmated fingers, a rudimenta-
Ty thumb, and enormous eXtenSOr mus
Giles in his hind legs. He lives upon
bugs, and has been known to swallow
small birds; but, like other amphibIa,
and unlike the ward politician, he can
not drink. His tongue is fastened to the
lower jaw at the tip insteao of at the
base, and he sings it out after a cricket
or a June bug like a lasso. The ency-
clopedia states that the frog is peculiar
for the presence of occipital condyles
and the development of the transverse
processes of the sacrum, but most peo-
pie do not believe this. His greatest
popularity lies in the fact that there is
nothing to eat on his bones except the
muscles of his legs.
The number of frogs sent North dur
ing the spring and summer is enormouss.
From the tributaries of Chesapeake Bay
alone the frog crop averages 500, 600 a
year. In the salt marshes Of the South
they grow larger than they do elsewhere
but the meat is coarser and not SO edi-
BILE. Frogs are as prolific as behring's.
Millions of little black tadpoles infest
every mud puddle. The knowing fish
esteem them very highly as food, but
the tadpole who escapes consumption
for three weeks drops his tail, which is
only a temporary affair anyhow, grows
four ample legs and goes out to be
bloody" himself until he is shot or
hooked to satiate the inveterate NAV
Of the lord Of creation.