Ranidae 



appear when the eyes are flattened to a level with the top of the 

 head. 



The Bullfrog feeds upon the insects and other small life 

 of the pond, as has been stated. But this does not make up the 

 greater part of his food. He is the green dragon of the pond 

 to the fish, the small turtles, the young water-birds, and, alas, 

 to the frogs also. The Bullfrog will eat any moving object 

 that he can swallow or partially swallow. It does not take long 

 to find out the cannibalistic traits of this frog, and to learn that 

 we must not keep a large specimen in the same place with smaller 

 frogs. When we open the collecting-pail on arriving home 

 from a trip to the pond, we learn our lesson, for several of the 

 smallest frogs have disappeared, and the feet and legs of one of 

 the largest are protruding from the capacious mouth of the big 

 fellow. 



The Bullfrogs are found throughout the United States, east 

 of the Rocky Mountains. They are less common than many 

 other frogs. This is not entirely owing to the many enemies 

 of the adults, i. e. snakes, otters, hawks and owls, herons, turtles, 

 and (at the South) alligators. Nor is it wholly due to the fact 

 that the tadpoles and the young frogs are preyed upon by fish 

 and by all sorts of small enemies of the pond to say nothing 

 of their own greedy kin. It is probably due in some measure to 

 the fact that their large size has made them especially valuable 

 as food for man, and that their large size, together with their 

 greed, has made them easy of capture. They bring a price of 

 from one to four dollars per dozen at the markets. 1 



The Bullfrog is solitary in habit, except at the breeding- 

 season. This breeding-season is late, extending from the last 

 of May into July. The tadpoles do not develop into frogs during 

 the first season, as do those of the Leopard and Pickerel frogs. 

 It is not until the second season, and sometimes the third, that 

 a Bullfrog tadpole makes its final transformation. 2 Giant 

 Bullfrog tadpoles can be found any month in the year. It is 



'Frog hunting is carried on in all parts of the United States. The states supplying the 

 largest amounts for the market are New York, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Alissouri and 

 California This work yields $50.000 annually to the hunters, but threatens the practical ex- 

 tinction of our native frogs. It has been demonstrated on Frog Reserves or "Frog Farms" in 

 Wisconsin, California and elsewhere that frog raising is a practicable and profitable industry. (See 

 Notes on the Edible Frogs of the U. S. Extract from Report of 1897 of the Commissioner of 

 U. S. Fisheries) 



2 This fact is interesting to persons actually concerned in frog culture. 



234 



