The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-22
THREE MEN GAIN VICTORY
 IN FIGHT WITH BULLFROG
Special Dispatch to the Globe Demo
 

Special Dispatch to the Globe Demo l crat.
 thrilling description of the strug-
 gle between three full grown men and
 a big bulltrog, the men attempting to rescue a 2-weeks-old chicken from the voracious maw of the frog, is one of
 the features of bulletin just prepared 1 by Prof. L. l.. Dyche, state fish and game warden, say3 Pratt, Kan, spe- cial to the St. Louis G1obe-Democrat The frog bulletin is to be incorporated | in Warden Dyche's report on the state fish hatchery at Pratt This bulletin is the final word on bullfrogs, unless Professor Dyche can succeed in his at tempts to breed 6 strain of frogs that can sing from music, an attempt that so far has not been successful. During the summer of 1911 while the men at the hatchery were working
 around one of the ponds," related Pro- lessor Dyche, "one of them MT. John French, saw a large bullfrog spring from the edge of the water and catch a chicken that was ? weeks old and partly fes.thed out. The frog with the
 chicken in its mouth jumped back | into the grass and weeds that grew | in the edge of the water, where it pro- ceeded to swallow the chicken. Mean
 while the old hen had made a great
 commotion and put up the best fight | she could under the circumstanc
 against the reptile, but it did not avail
 much.
 l "The men, who were nearby, rushed ! to the scene of action and succeeded l in capturing the frog by means of a
 rake. The poor chicken was all our | of sight in the frogs stomach except
 its head. which apparently had caught 1 in the corner of the frogs mouth. One of the mon, Mir John French held the
 frog, while his brother, Henry, l squeezed the frogs stomach. Arthur
 Shaw took the chicken by the head and worked his finger around in the frog s throat to loosen up and dislodge the chicken.
 "The combined efforts of the three men succeeded in getting the chicken out ot
 the frogs stomach The chicken wet and ! covered with slime, made distressed com | ments in the way of little squawls and peeps when rescued. 1t was partly dried with piece of burlap and wrapped up
 and placed in the sun, where it might get dry and warm. It revived and was afterward turned loose with the hen. The old bullfrog, with an empty stomach and
 look of disgust and disappointment on his face was returned to the pond, not, i, however, until a little advice had been administered on the fish and game laws and the closed season on birds Cases have been reported where the bullfrogs | caught and swallowed young ducks" In his bulletin Professor Dyche gives a list of the enemies of small fish The bull frog he classes among these, and remarks | naively that they do not always stay where you put them. They have good strong voices and well developed vocal chords, he adds, and frequently entertain each other by singing solos. However, they spend most of their lives sitting around looking wise and doing nothing. One morning in 1910 the employees round- ed up 90 bullfrogs killed and dissected them. And in their stomachs, among
 other things, were found the following: Feathers. inches long, from the tail of a sparrow; seven snais in one frog cray fish: sunfish. 2ls inches long; bull-head catfish, inches long: water beelles other bullfrogs; young turtles; smoke, 15 inches long,
 Professor Dyche has received many re- quests, one of them from farmer in Colorado, for bullfrogs trained to sing, but said that so far he has been una ble to breed any Carusos. In closing this bull frog bulletin Professor Dyche says: If there is anything you do not understand after studying the bulletins, please write
 us. Department Fish and Game, Pratt Kan"