ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



11.73 



TWO COLOR PHASES OF THE BERMUDA CHUB 

 From a photograph by Elwin R. Sanborn. 



— record it as pure supposition that salamanders 

 withstand great heat. According to Hunter's 

 Encyclopaedic Dictionary of 1879, it was "A 

 curious belief" arising from "strange tales that 

 have been told from early times ;" while Mur- 

 ray's English Dictionary of 1914 says, "A liz- 

 ard-like animal supposed to live in or be able to 

 endure fire. Now only allusive." 



Thus we can trace the gradual extinction of a 

 fancy so deep-rooted that it held the human 

 mind for not less than twenty centuries, and 

 probably for a much longer time. In view of 

 its antiquity, we cannot lay it at the feet of the 

 Rosicrucians, but it is a fact worthy of note that 

 this Christian sect, founded in the 15th century, 

 taught that spirits having human form lived in 

 the fire, and they called them salamanders. At 

 the same time it was popularly supposed that 

 many animals possessed the power to turn them- 

 selves into human beings, the seal performing 

 that feat every ninth month and many other 

 animals doing so at will. Having power over 

 matter, a transformation of appearance was 

 quite possible to "the people of the elements," 

 as the Rosicrucians called the four kinds of 

 spirits — Gnomes in Earth, Undines in Water, 

 Salamanders in Fire, and Sylphs in Air. 



Faust, in his reference to salamanders, doubt- 

 less had in mind one of those interchangeable 

 creatures ; and perhaps the elder Cellini imag- 



ined he was pointing out such a transformed 

 being to his children. St. Benedict is said al- 

 so to have seen one. 



With the advance of modern science, those 

 enchanted days of fairies, elves and goblins, 

 nymphs, gnomes and sylphs, undines, genii and 

 salamanders-in-the-fire, and all their ilk, have 

 slowly passed away. 



TWO COLOR PHASES OF THE 

 BERMUDA CHUB 



By C. H. TOWNSEND 



THIS fish is usually to be found among the 

 occupants of the tanks at the Aquarium. 

 It is a common species in the Bermudas, 

 Florida, and the West Indies, and in summer 

 occasionally visits our own coast. ' 



The Aquarium has had specimens taken in 

 New York Bay. 



It is abundant about the outer portions of the 

 coral reefs of the Bermudas, where it is con- 

 sidered one of the gamiest of the fishes to be 

 taken with hook and line. 



It has a soft mouth, from which the hook 

 tears away readily and has to be handled care- 

 fully when hooked. The favorite bait is the 

 spiny lobster. It is chiefly a vegetable feeder, 



