THE OUTDOOR WORLD 



199 



A NEARER VIEW OF THE LOBSTER'S EGGS. 

 From a specimen caught off the shore at Sound Beach. 



that the eggs are hatching- — June and 

 j u lv — though record has it that a lob- 

 ster liberated at Woods' Hole, Mass., 

 was caught off the New Jersey coast. 



Fishing is carried on by means of 

 the "lobster trap," a rectangular slat 

 box from three and a half to four feet 

 long and from fourteen to sixteen 

 inches wide, in the end of which is a 

 knitted funnel of twine for the lobster 

 to enter, and on a sharpened stick, in 

 the center is impaled a fish for bait, 

 while stones in the bottom sink it to 

 the rocks and ledges where the lobster 

 lives, and a long rope with a buoy 

 attached guides the fisherman back to 

 his traps 



Various reasons are given for the 

 alarming decrease in their numbers, 

 two of which stand out boldly and 

 apply equally to the fisherman and the 

 general public — namely, the practice of 

 scraping off the eggs before they are 

 ready to hatch, that the mother lobster 

 may be sold and thus destroying the in- 

 crease, and the taking and selling of 

 "shorts." or lobsters under the legal 

 length, thus destroying them before they 

 even get a chance to reproduce, both of 

 which practices must stop, else the lob- 

 ster will in time be known only to the 

 rich and the epicure. 



Inherited Habits of Young Animals. 



BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT, WASHINGTON, 

 D. C. 



Ever since the publication of some of 

 Darwin's great works pertaining to the 

 study and history of man, the litera- 

 ture" of this subject has been con- 

 tinually and rapidly on the increase. 

 This gratifying fact is not only signifi- 

 cant but important and encouraging. 

 Most of the authors in this field have 

 devoted their energies to the study of 

 the adult, paying but little attention to 

 the young of our kind. Still this line 

 of research has by no means been alto- 

 gether neglected, and a great many 

 books are extant on the subject, until 

 now, indeed, the list is a very long 

 and formidable one. One has to but 

 scan the bibliography of child-study, as 

 so thoroughly collected together for us 

 by Arthur MacDonald, to appreciate 

 the truth of this statement. It is to be 

 found in his admirable volume, "Man 

 and Abnormal Man." Then Professor 

 Alexander F. Chamberlain of Clark 

 Universitv, has in his excellent work, 

 "The Child," given us another very 

 helpful list of books upon similar re- 

 searches. 



All of this is of extreme importance, 

 for it is largely upon a full knowledge 

 of children in all respects, that we are 

 enabled to make predictions as to what 

 the civilizations of future nations are 

 likely to be. 



With resnect to animals below man 



