Who are the lost boys? What are their characteristics?

Peter Pan explains to Wendy that he lives in Neverland with the lost boys. When Wendy asks who they are, Peter says that they are children who have fallen out of their perambulators "when the nurse is looking the other way." He then jovially says that "if they are not claimed within seven days, they are sent far away to the Neverland to defray expenses," as if the boys were lost property left at a railway station. There is much debate surrounding the lost boys and what they represent—darker readings of the text suggest they may be children who died when they were small, or miscarried babies. However, Barrie tells us that "all children except one grow up." The lost boys are not exceptions to this rule; Peter alone is exempt. When the lost boys are seen to be growing up ("which is against the rules") Peter "thins them out"—one presumes that this means they are sent home from Neverland, but in the preceding line Barrie does say that the lost boys "get killed," so it could even be inferred that Peter, as captain, is responsible for executing the boys as a form of population control.
The lost boys are, according to Peter, all rather lonely because there are no girls to keep them company (because girls are far too clever to fall out of their prams). The boys are "sure-footed" and wear bearskins, being forbidden to look like Peter in any way. They are brave and rather bloodthirsty, have been taught to obey Peter in everything, and the most conceited thing they can do is "remember the day before they were lost"—this making it more difficult for the boys to live in Neverland under Peter's rule.