The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-07-31
manitouoe pilot.
THURSDAY, JULY 81, 1884.
Frog Shooting.

The frog is homely creature, but
every year it becomes more valuable
intrinsically as a marketable product
of the fresh water. 1t is now esteemed
as game in restaurants, and three frogs
fricasseed In cream call for 40 cents.
The restaurateur pays about 90 cents
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 batrachian reptile Of the an
curious order, embracing such thor
oughbred groups as the ranid8 and
hylads. The ranida is, therefore, the
"anourous batrachian reptile" which
we deyour with cream sauce and pay
40 cents for. The hyla is 3 tree-frog,
with warts on his back, and is not built
for the table.
The small boy used to kill frogs ten
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 good
days wages by killing a couple of
dozen or SO. Sportsmen even go after
them with cat-rifles and shoot them as
they squat on the banks of a stream or
pond, with true sportsmanlike glee.
Epicures devour them greedily.
The ranid9 are ordinarily known as
bull-frogs, because when they attain
old age they can raise as much fuss
along a river bank at night as herd
of Texas cattle. The boys call them
"bloodies, the name being an abrevi-
alton of "bloody-nouns," the pronunci-
alton of the compound word in a gut
tural 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 stone,
but he can hop across country when
his native pond dries up in q style that
would discount an Arabian camel
| making for an oasis. When he finds
| another pool of water he stays there
and makes himself comfortable. Oc-
casionaIly he Will stop and spend some
time in 4 moist locality, where there is
nothing but ooze or damp leaves. He
has four non-palmated fingers, rudi-
mentary thumb. and enormous extern
| sor muscles in his hind legs. He lives
upon bugs, and has been known to
swallow small birds, but, like other
| amphibia and unlike tho ward poll
| tician, he can not drink. His tongue
| is fastened 20 the lower jaw at the tip
| instead. of at the base, and he sings it
| out after q cricket or June bug like
| Iasso. The encyclopedia states that
the frog is peculiar for the presence of
occipital condyIes and the development
| of the transverse processes OF the
| sacrunl. but most people 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 rumber of frogs sent north dur
| ing the spring and summer IS enor-
! nous From the tributaries of the
| Chesapeake bay alone the frog crop
averages 500, coo q year In the salt
| marshes of the south they grow larger
than they DO elsewhere, but the meat
| is coarser and not so edible. Frogs
| are as prolific as behring's. Millions of
! little black tadpoles infcst 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 q
| bloody himself until he is shot or
| hooked to satiato the inveterate nav
| OF the lord of creation. -Batttm0re Sun.