White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1933-03-02

Preparing Frog
prepared by National eseg5ap sisvi Soc:
T2OGS, once famous only TOR tnelr
II hind legs, but whose skins now
i make book covers and fine glue,
annually add more than $4,000
to the Industrial census figures OF
Louisiana. Frog raising and the col
lestion of frogs from streams, ponds,
and swamps are therefore becoming
important activities.
1t requires from four to five years
for the frog whose legs are edible to
reach adult size. When the warm
spring sun tempers the water in our
ponds, 1t is mating-time for frogs, A
female frog may lay as many as 24O
eggs. The eggs are deposited in small
masses on water plants or on sticks
or leaves lying in shallow water. An
egg consists of the yolk-the round
black center-and the vitelline en-
velope-the surrounding transparent
membrane-which begins to absorb
water as soon as the egg is laid, and
thus Immediately swells to be several
times it's original size.
But already danger besets the germ
of life growing there. A gray fungus
or mold may penetrate the envelope,
sprout upon the yolk, and thus cut off
the life of the little frog before it has
well begun. But If fate is kind and
conditions are favorable, the central
yolk, at first single cell, begins at
ITO grow, dividing into two cells,
these into four, these into eight, and
so on in the typical way.
Under favorable conditions, the tad
pole matches on the fourth day. At
first II is a minute, f1attened, yellow
ish object, with conspicuous branch
ing filaments, it's gills at one end and
coarse, rudderlike appendage, the
tail, at the other.
The little creature at this stage can
barely wriggle away from it's cast-off
envelope, to squirm upward to the sur
face of the water, where it instinc-
lively seeks the shelter of foliage and
of the shallow water, for at this age
1t easily becomes the prey of small
fish and other ever-hungry enemies.
Development Of TadpoIe.
In few days, when it's mouth parts
have begun to develop. it nibbles the
"scum" of green algae which forms a
dense mat over every submerged stone
or pebble in the stagnant pond.
The mouth Of the tadpole is not at
all like that of the adult frog. A
sharply hooked beak, suggesting that
of parrot, but almost microscopic In
sire. adorns the front of the tadpole's
head and is useful as means of
scraping and tearing at the minute
water plants and animals which it
takes for food.
At this stage tadpoles are scaven-
gers. and fortunate are they to find
i. the crumbs that fall from the rich
mans table in the form of fragments
of fish or other food left by larger
and more careless banqueters in Ma
, lures storehouse. This rich fare fat
. tens the tadpole's body to ridiculous
rotundity. His tiny, lidless eyes stare
solemnly upward at the water surface,
, to which he must now rush every few
moments for lungfM of air. as his
gills are beginning to be absorbed and
he has had since to depend largely on
his two nostri1s. equipped with valves
TO keep them closed and water-tight
during his submarine excursioning,
augmented by spiraculum. or breath
ing pore, on the, left side of his body.
I His tail has developed to thing of
surprising strength and pliability, for
+ on it's power alone his safety depends
in the increasingly bitter struggle to
= escape his countless enemies.
I Before the tadpole is many weeks
l old pair of budlike growths sprouts
near the base of the tail, and shortly
p these el0ngate into a pair of hind
v legs equipped with five toes. which
$ closely resemble those of the adult
( At this stage marvellous power of
: regeneration may take place. for If a
s toe or even leg is nipped off, an
r other one will grow in the place, an
8 exact duplicate of the one lost. After
! metamorphosis is complete, this re-
+ generative power ceases to function
!. and limb once lost is not regrown.
< Comes Out Of the Water.
Some days after the legs appear. the
right arm comes out. Now the little
tadpole stays near the top of the wa.
ter nearly all the time and seems very
uncomfortable. and no wonder. His
J. left arm is developing Just where the
e breathing pore is located AS soon as
v 1t bursts through his troubles are
lessened. for now he can hop out or
the bank in true frog fashion and