Adams and Hankinson. — Oneida Lake Fisheries 161 



frogs are flushed and as they alight a blow is struck 

 with the club, killing them. In this manner from 600 

 to 800 frogs may be caught in a day, from July until 

 the winter season sets in. Mr. H. N. Coville has taken 

 early in August 1,276 frogs between 9 A. M. and 2:30 

 P. M. or 5!/2 hours of work. This is an exceptional 

 record. It was during a drouth when the frogs had 

 congregated in short grass, grass as short as in a closely 

 cropped pasture. When the haying of timothy and 

 clover begins early in July, the frogs leave the fields and 

 go to the short pastures, just as during a drouth. 



The second method of capture is by the use of screens. 

 This is used in the fall when the frogs migrate from 

 the fields and swamps toward the lake for hibernation. 

 This migration is not regular, it takes place mostly at 

 night, particularly during warm rains, after a light frost. 

 Taking advantage of this migrating behavior, cheese 

 cloth screens, about 18 inches high, supported by sticks, 

 are placed along the shore to intercept the migrating 

 frogs. At intervals of two or three rods, nail kegs, carbide 

 Tans, or post-hole like excavations entrap the frogs which, 

 failing to surmount the screen, wander along it, and fall 

 in the traps. The frog catcher has only to collect the 

 frogs from those traps. Late in the season one may find 

 various sized frogs, mice and other small mammals 

 drowned and frozen in these small wells. 



The screens have to be placed far enough back from 

 the lake shore to avoid water rising to near the surface 

 and thus destroy the traps. On swampy ground the 

 holes are similarly obliterated by the water. To over- 

 come this difficulty, Mr. A. W. Thierre, of Lower South 

 Bay, has devised a trap of woven wire screen ; with a one- 

 half inch mesh. If this trap was placed at an opening 

 in the screen, which is not the case, it would allow the 

 undersized frogs to escape and to reach the lake and find 

 proper winter quarters, while the screens tend to destroy 

 both the smaller kinds of frogs and immature individuals 

 of the larger species. This wire trap has an inclined 

 surface up which the frogs crawl, and from which they 



