130 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY 



especially in the last, also in Ontario and other parts of Canada. They 

 are sold alive and by the pound, dressed, the price varying with the 

 locality, season and other conditions. 



Frogs are collected in various ways a hook and line, baited with a 

 piece of red cloth is sometimes dangled in front of the frog who seizes 

 the moving cloth and is thus hooked; small bore fire arms and various 

 spears are also used, sometimes at night with a bright light to dazzle 

 the eyes of the frogs; sometimes they are dug out of the mud where they 

 are hibernating. 



Unrestricted hunting has, in some localities, nearly exterminated 

 the frogs and has brought up the subject of their artificial propagation. 

 Without sufficient knowledge of the breeding habits of frogs it would 

 seem that, with the high market values usually prevailing, it should be 

 an easy matter to make large profits by raising them for market. Part 

 of the process is quite easily handled, but, as we shall see, there is 

 one peculiarity in the habits of frogs that is difficult to meet. Every- 

 one is familiar with the masses of frog eggs that are seen in small ponds 

 and sluggish streams in the early spring; these may be collected in al- 

 most unlimited numbers. In a few days or weeks, depending upon the 

 temperature of the water, these eggs hatch into tiny tadpoles that soon 

 begin to feed voraciously upon any kind of organic material that may be 

 available and to grow rapidly. During the tadpole stage there are 

 many enemies such as birds, snakes, turtles, crawfish and adult frogs, 

 that destroy these larvae in large numbers so that the first problem of 

 the frog culturist is to protect in some way the eggs and tadpoles. 

 This may be done by collecting the eggs and allowing them to hatch and 

 develop in artificial ponds or tanks where the tadpoles may be fed and 

 protected, or better, perhaps by screening small natural ponds with 

 wire netting to keep out the above-mentioned enemies and stocking 

 these ponds with a number of adult frogs, males and females, to lay the 

 eggs. In this way tadpoles without number may be raised, but the 

 main difficulty mentioned above, arises when the tadpoles change to 

 frogs, which happens in from two months to two years. It is essential 

 that when this transformation takes place that the young frogs or old 

 tadpoles, whichever they may be called, Fig. 86, have a sloping shore 

 where they may crawl out on the bank, otherwise the metamorphosis is 

 indefinitely postponed; tadpoles have been kept in aquaria for several 

 years without transformation because of lack of a place for them to leave 



