abstracts: ethnology 165 



ably pointed out, and follow the principles of breeders of domestic 



animals everywhere— use the smaller and better .-mini;, Is for food, and 

 keep the older, and in this case by far the most valuable, for propagation," 

 Specific suggestions on these points are as follows : 



1. Adopt a double gage or length limit, placing in a perpetual close 

 season or protected class all below and all above these limits. Place the 

 legal bar so as to embrace the average period of sexual maturity, and 

 thus to include what we have called the intermediate class of adoles- 

 cents, or smaller adults. These limits should be approximately !» inches 

 and 11 inches, inclusive, thus legalizing the destruction of lobsters from 

 9 to 11 inches long only when measured alive. In this way we protect 

 the young as well as the larger adults, upon which we depend for a con- 

 tinuous supply of eggs. The precise terms of these limits are not so vital. 

 provided we preserve the principle of protecting the larger adults. 



2. Protect the "berried" lobster on principle, and pay a bounty for it . 

 as is now done, whether the law is evaded or not, and use its eggs for 

 constructive work, or for experimental purposes with such work in view. 



3. Abolish the closed season if it still exists; let the fishing extend 

 throughout the year. 



4. Wherever possible, adopt the plan of rearing the young to the 

 bottom-seeking stage before liberation, or cooperate with the United 

 States Bureau of Fisheries or with sister states to this end. 



5. License every lobster fisherman, and adopt a standard trail or 

 pot which shall work automatically, so far as possible, in favor of the 

 double gage, the entrance rings being of such a diameter as to exclude 

 all lobsters above the gage, and the slats of the trap of such a distance 

 apart as to permit the undersized animals to escape. 



There is appended a bibliography of 329 titles. The plates are chiefly 

 anatomical and diagrammatic, but three of them picture the young lob- 

 ster in its life colors. E. M. Smith. 



ETHNOLOGY.— The Hoffman F J hilip Abyssinian Ethnological Col- 

 lection. Walter Hough. Proceedings I". S. National Museum. 

 40: 265-27(3, 22* plates. 1911. 



A description of rare Abyssinian specimens deposited in the United 

 States National Museum by the Honorable Hoffman Philip, former 

 minister and consul-general of the United States at Addis Abeba, con- 

 sisting of metal work, basketry, paintings, manuscript, costume, etc.. 

 which are interesting survivals of an earlier and higher civilization around 

 the eastern Mediterranean. W . II. 



