The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-11-13
THE TRUTH ABOUT sALAMANDERs
A. to the origin OF the Belief That They.
Are ut Home In Fire.

Nobody knows how the super
stition regarding the supposed fire
proof quality of the salamander had
its rise, y said DR.. Stejneger, the
reptilian expert of the Smithsonian
Institution to a reporter. How
ever | can give what think is a
pretty good guess at it. To explain
shall have to tell you story.
Once upon time | was camp
ing out with party, hunting and
fishing. We had lighted big fire.
using for fuel several old logs.
While we were sitting around
watching the progress of some
cookery in which we were engaged
young lady at my side gave lit
tie scream and pointed into the
flames. looked, and there was
small lizard crawling right out from
among the glowing embers. Ii
walked away, unhurt apparently,
through the grass and made its es-
cape.
Now, that salamander had oc-
cupied hole in one of the logs
used for fuel. Several species of
its kind live in old tree trunks.
Doubtless this one found that it was
getting uncomfortably hot aud
crawled out. Being moist and
Shiny, its body was protected from
injury by the fire long enough to
enable it to escape through the
embers. But the sight of the ami.
NAL deliberately making its appear
ance from the midst of the fire was
certainly very surprising. Any
ignorant person might easily have
been led to imagine that the creature
must be fireproof 1t seems to me
quite probable that the superstition
took its rise from Just such occur
rences.
There is SO many species of
salamanders that a description Of
them all would fill book. They
are to be found all over the world,
except in very cold regions. In
popular sense, the name sala-
mander' is applied to all batrachians
with tails That is rather a loose
definition. A tadpole is batrach-
ian with a tail, but it is not a sala-
mander. The great majority of
salamanders are small, such as the
nevis, found i'll springs. The big
gest species in this country is the
so-called mud eel, or siren 1t
has only two feet, just behind the
head, and it has external gills
when fully developed, which is an
exception to the rule among sala
manders.
The biggest salamander in the
world is found in Japan. 1t attains
a length of two feet, and is related
to the "hellblender. Most sala-
manders live on insects, but the
very large kinds eat pretty nearly
everything as rule. For instance,
the japanese species is omnivorous
So far as l am aware none of the
salamanders is considered good to
eat, by civilized men at all events.
Two years ago obtained a speci-
men of the only known species OF
blind salamander 1t came from
cave in Missouri. A so-called blind
salamander exists i'll certain caves
OF Austria, but it is not true sala-
mander, though il would come
under the popular definition, being
a batrachian with tail.
"One peculiar thing about sala
manders is that they are not as
large when full grown as when they
are partly developed. That seems
a funny paradox, does it not? You
see, salamanders go through a
metamorphosis during their life
time, as frogs do, though the change
is not so marked. They have
larval period, as the tadpole is the
larva of the frog. On becoming
adult they shrink up considerably.
During the larval period they have
gills like fish, which usually be-
come rudimentary. An odd eX-
ception to this rule is the 'axolotl'
of Mexico, which does not undergo
any such metamorphosis and never
becomes adult in scientific sense.
In other words, it never reaches
what is the final stage with other
salamanders, but always remains Il
larva.
"Axolots of different species are
found in various parts of the United
States, but they do undergo the
change and become adult How
ever, if you keep one of them III
water and prevent ii from escaping,
it will remain a larva always and
will undergo no metamorphosis. In
order to change it has to get on dry
land. Having become land ami
NAL, its external gills disappear,
being no longer required for breath
ing in water. The Mexican aXolotl
never goes on land-at any rate
not for longer time then its gill'
will remain wet.
Very Funny.