252 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



relatively inferior quality. Only the hiud legs are commonly utilized, 

 tlie meat on the other parts of the body being edible, but in very small 

 quantity. In some localities, however, the entire body, after the removal 

 of the viscera, is fried with eggs and bread crumbs. The legs are pre- 

 pared for the table by broiling, frying, or stewing. 



A prejudice formerly existed against frogs as an article of food, per- 

 haps based on their uncanny appearance and heightened through tlieir 

 appropriation by witches and empirics for spells in love aflairs and the 

 cure of various diseases. For a long time the French people alone 

 availed themselves of this delicacy, though it was known to the Eomans. 

 From France the use of this food passed into Germany, England, and 

 other parts of Europe, and later into the United States, where frogs 

 are now more generally consumed than in any other country, and 

 where, during the proper seasons, they may be found in the markets 

 of any of the larger cities.* 



FROG-HUNTING. 



The business of taking frogs for market has greatly increased in 

 recent years. It is now carried on in all sections of the United States, 

 and is of economic importance in about fifteen States, while in nearly 

 all the remaining States and Territories frogs are taken for local or 

 home consumption, of which it is impossible to get a statistical account. 

 The States supplying the largest quantities for the markets are Cali 

 fornia, Missouri, New York, Arkansas, Maryland, Virginia, Oliio, and 

 Indiana. More frogs are taken in New York than in any other State, 

 but on account of their comparatively small size their value is less than 

 in Missouri and California. The Canadian Province of Ontario also 

 yields a comparatively large supply of market frogs. According to 

 inquiries of the United States Fish Commission, the annual catch in 

 the United States is but little less than 1,000,000, with a gross value to 

 the hunters of about $50,000. The yearly cost of frogs and frog legs 

 to the consumers is not less than $150,000. 



The localities in which especially important frog hunting is done are 

 the marshes of the western end of Lake Erie, and Lewis* and Grand 

 reservoirs, in Ohio; the marshes of the Sacramento and San Joaquin 

 rivers, California; the valley of the Kankakee River, Indiana; Oneida 

 Lake, Seneca Eiver, and other waters of northern New York, and the 

 St. Francis River and the sunken lands of the Mississippi River, in 

 Arkansas and Missouri. 



In taking frogs for market, lines baited with red cloth, worms, or 

 Insects are extensively used; guns, small-bore rifles, and spears are 

 also employed, and cross-bows are adopted for this purpose in Canada. 

 They are often hunted at night, a lantern furnishing light for the 



* While it is popularly supposed that the cousumption of frogs in Frauce is much 

 larger thau elsewhere, this is uot the case, and, on the authority of the Revue des 

 Sciences Naturelles Appliquees (1889), it may be stated that the annual consumption 

 of frogs in the United States is ten times that in France. 



