OTHER USEFUL ANIMALS 



This is the bird which, has caused so 

 many references to the song of the dy- 

 ing swan. It is rarely kept in confine- 

 ment. Bewick's swan is a smaller, white 

 bird with slender neck and is seldom 

 domesticated. The black swan comes 

 from Australia and is most common 

 next to the mute swan. The color is 

 black and it has scarlet eyes and red 

 bill tipped with white. It breeds freely 

 in domestication and the cygnets are 

 very hardy. The black-necked swan 

 (C. nigricollis) comes from South Amer- 

 ica. It is pure white except the black 

 head and neck. The legs are orange 

 and the bill lead color. 



Swan eggs are sometimes hatched un- 

 der geese but as a rule swans do not al- 



all. The bull frog and the California 

 frog are most in demand and it is 

 claimed that the latter is of superior 

 quality. All frogs have an acrid secre- 

 tion in the skin which protects them to 

 some extent from dogs, cats and other 

 enemies. The leopard frog (Rana vi- 

 rescens) with its several varieties has^ 

 the widest range of any of our frogs, 

 occurring from the Atlantic coast to 

 the Sierra Nevada mountains. The 

 length is about 3 inches and the color 

 olive green with dark brown spots. It 

 is often seen far from water in wet 

 meadows. One variety of the leopard 

 frog is commonly eaten in the southwest. 

 The swamp frog (R. palustris) is of 

 about the same size, and the color above 



Fig. 450 — WILD OR CANADA GOOSE ON NEST 



low much interference with their pri- 

 vate affairs. If the old birds are very 

 tame the cygnets may be fed by throw- 

 ing oatmeal bread, or other food on the 

 water or better still by placing it in 

 troughs in the water. There is a good 

 market demand for the meat of swans 

 and if they were a little better domes- 

 ticated the business of raising them 

 might be profitable. 



FROGS 



Frogs furnish an article of food which 

 is in considerable demand throughout 

 the country. There are many species 

 in the United States and all are edible, 

 but most of them are too small to pay 

 for catching them. We have eaten all 

 the common species and the flavor of the 

 meat seems to be very much the same in 



is a pale brown with two rows of spots 

 on the back and yellowish white beneath. 

 It is found from the gulf of Mexico to 

 Hudson bay and westward to the Great 

 Plains. A closely related species (R. 

 areolata) with a light ground color and 

 numerous round spots occurs in the 

 southwest where it is often eaten. The 

 mink frog (R. septentrionalis) occurs in 

 the northern states and Canada, reaches 

 only 2 inches in length, is of a light 

 olive green color with blotches and is 

 of little value on account of its small 

 size. It is strictly aquatic. The green 

 frog (R. clamata) is common every- 

 where in the eastern states in or near 

 the water. It reaches the size of 3 

 inches and is a uniform dull green color. 

 It is essentially aquatic and does not 

 venture far from water. The meat is 



