ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



t: 





BEAVER CANAL LEADING FROM COLD RIVER 

 INTO SWAMP 



THE LOBSTER FISHERY OF GREATER 

 NEW YORK. 



IT may not be known to the general public 

 that the lobster fishery of this City is, at 

 the present time, a highly profitable one. 

 At Staten Island, South Brooklyn, and Graves- 

 end Bay, are about forty lobster fishermen, each 

 of whom catches from 75 to 150 pounds of mar- 

 ketable lobsters a day. — to say nothing of about 

 50 pounds of "shorts," i. e., small lobsters, the 

 capture and sale of which is illegal, and which 

 ire returned to the water. 



The daily average catch of each fisherman — 

 100 pounds of marketable lobsters — means, of 

 course, a total of about L000 pounds a day for 

 the forty men engaged in the industry; and as 

 the lobsters bring fifty cents a pound wholesale, 

 the profit for each man, as will be readily seen, 

 averages $50 a day, — a veritable gold mine at 

 our doors. 



But the mine, like many another, will prove 

 of short duration. As spring advances the num- 

 ber of fishermen will increase, which will at 

 first enlarge and eventually exhaust the catch, 

 and automatically lower prices. In the mean- 

 time the lode is a rich one for the lucky forty, 

 who are working their watery bonanza for all 

 it is worth. — to the sorrow of the lobster and 

 the joy of the epicurean. 



— W. I. DeNyse. 



THE BEAVER IN THE ADIRONDACK^. 

 By C. H. Towxsend. 



THE accompanying photographs, illustrative 

 of the remarkable works and habits of the 

 beaver, were made by the writer during a 

 recent trip to Long Lake in the Adirondack 

 Mountains. There are several beaver colonies 

 on Cold River, near the outlet to Long Lake. 



The beaver was formerly very abundant in 

 our northern states, but became scarce years 

 ago as a result of trapping. In the days of its 

 abundance, beaver skins were taken literally by 

 hundreds of thousands. Practically extermi- 

 nated in New York state, it was reintroduced 

 in the Adirondaeks between 1902 and 1901 and 

 is now common in some places. The beaver is 

 celebrated for its industry as a builder of dams 

 and lodges. The former may be many yards in 

 length and the latter seven or eight feet in 

 height. It fells the trees on which it feeds, by 

 gnawing through them, often when they exceed 

 a foot in diameter. In floating building mate- 

 rials and food supplies to its lodges, the beaver 

 constructs canals of considerable length, and 

 makes slides down which materials are dragged 

 to the water. 



The beaver is our largest native rodent. A 

 specimen was brought to the Aquarium in 1918, 

 and although naturally a bark eater, it soon 

 learned to like turnips, parsnips and other vege- 

 tables, but a supply of poplar or birch branches 

 was found necessary for an animal of such per- 

 sistent gnawing habits. It soon became very 

 tame, readily taking food from the hand. 



A recent bulletin of the Minnesota Game and 

 Fish Department announces that "beaver have 





The Aquarium Appropriation. — The City lias 

 reduced the fund for the maintenance of the 

 Aquarium for the year 1919 to $-15,000. 



BEAVER SLIDE ON COLD RIVER 



