The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-07
NEW YORK SALAMANDERS
FOURTEEN KINDS IDENTIFIED
 BY MIR. DITMARS.


 the ChameIeons Women Used to Wear
 for WhiIe-PaIisades Great Hunt
 ing Ground.
 In our local fauna Raymond L. Dit
 mars has just identified and listed sev-
 eral species of New. York salamander. Once upon a time this order of reptiles was fabled to live on fire. Most of the
 New York varieties begin life in water, mature so as to breathe atmosphere, make their homes in moss or the cool { places under stones, and eat, instead of fire, such chilly things as beetle grubs and small clammy earth worms. Fables, for some undiscovered reason,
 usually run topsy-turvy in natural hiis-
 tory. "Salamanders are cold, dismal creatures, therefore they eat burning
 flames was early science. | Around New York MT. Ditmars. who
 is curator of reptiles at the Geological
 Park, has found four families, twelve
 species and two varieties of what is called the Urodela, two of which, one living in water and one in the chilly depths of the Palisades woods, he des- | ignates as newts. These eat what the
 salamanders do, and in addition the larvae of ants, and in captivity have developed a liking for raw beef. Their
 only exploited use is ffctional-with ad-
 der's fork and toe of frog, the eye of
 newt once made brew of powerful trouble" Upon the Palisades, it has
 been observed, the newt lives in water
 or on land, as he pleases, changing color
 and dropping its gills when it goes from
 flsh-life to land-life. but still coming out from his shelter of bark and leaves after rains.
 Local naturalists have aided MT. Dit
 mars. w. D. W. Miller of Plainfield N.
 J., has captured thereabouts salamand-
 CTS such as usually occur no nearer 1 New York City than Delaware Water 1 Gap, where Assures of rocks, filled with
 moss, or the under side of flat stones in a dry stream are their habitat. It
 is the true cave salamander, with a | long tail, like an elongated small liz ard, or minute soft-skinned alligator, 1 yellow and dotted. MT. Ditmars re- lates that all "salamanders and newts may be distinguished from lizards by
 their lizard-like form, but even the
 novice may at once distinguish them from lizards by their moist or slimy, naked skin, totally devoid of scales" I You have only to touch one with the [ tip of your finger to be sure!
 | Generally in and around the city is
 the marbled salamander, stately block, blotched with grayish white, growing Ave ST,n t- gsI,
 separated by observers from the spot. ted salamander which is black above, with golden spots arrow on the sides This in turn need not be confused with the tiger salamander, because the lat ter besides the stripe of yellow, has i yellow chin, and gray belly. Just across Hudson River the tigers grow to eight and one-half inches It is fre- quent on Long Island, but Is one of the rarest of the batrachians of this
 neighborhood, and is water born. A specimen in MT. Ditmar's collection had eaten some young field mice. Hiding
 by day, it prowls during hours of dark
 ness or during rains" Subway exca- vators are said to have found some in
 damp spots they uncovered under Man | haitian.
 | There is a New York four-toed sala-
 mander, reddish and about the head, somewhat bronze in color, mottled on the sides, bluish white underneath. It
 is blunt of snout. It prevails most 1 across the Hudson on the Palisades, | in timbered places, hiding under logs
 and rocks. More abundant on the Pal
 isades is the gray salamander, which Is slender and worm-like, with silvery spots, This had nothing to do with
 water; it lives wholly on rocky land,
 and can move with agility, doubling up 1 like a caterpillar and jumping. Any
 damp woods in the Bronx or Long Is-
 land are likely to contain the red-b back
 ed salamander. It differs from the gray
 mainly in having a bright red band on | the back sometimes sprinkled with small gray specks. Then there is a disagreeable salamander characterized 1 as the slimy." It is black above, and
 covered with lchen-gray spots-an
 odious creature unless you happen to
 have a scientific interest in it. It is
 common in the city wherever pave
 ments have not ben laid; and there are i | " 1 handled!" declares MT. Ditmars, "thi7
 salamander exudes through the skin a
 whitish mucous that adheres persist; ently." In the Orange Mountains ther 1 has been found a red salamander; ir
 the Adirondacks, and Eugene Smith of Hoboken found one, and at Greenwood
 Lake, N. J., the mountain salamander, with a light band from eye to mouth.
 Most abundant of all is the dusky sala
 mander, but it is to be seen only in | the vicinity of waters. It likes dead
 leaves and flat stones for housing. Its
 eggs are like string of beads, and lone of the sexes'-which one is not fixed protects the string of eggs by twisting 1 it about the body and remaining in
 concealment. It ought to mean a medal
 or degree to the naturalist who would i settle whether it is the male or female
 which is so interested to prevent race
 suicide.-New York Evening Post. 
 The soothing spray of Ely's Liquid Cream Balm used in an atomizer, is an unspeakable relief to sufferers from ca-
 tarrh. Some of them describe it as a