8 C «J Mr. Montagu's Description of several Marine Animals 



the marine division (which are by far the most numerous, and 

 least known), in their own element*. 



Favourable as our own country is for the study of marine ani- 

 mals, it is extraordinary that so little has been done in that branch 

 of physiology since the writings of Ellis, who almost exclusively 

 adopted the marine polype, and threw more than ordinary light 

 on that obscure subject, both as to the habitations, or coralline 

 substances, and the animals by which they were formed. But it-is 

 equally astonishing that this great naturalist should not have ex- 

 tended his researches further than to zoophites, who must in his 

 various marine excursions, while contemplating the objects of his 

 particular inquiry in their native element, have had under 

 his eye an inconceivable variety of other animals, which so 

 far surpass in beauty any of the coralline Hydrce, that our asto- 

 nishment is excited at the total neglect of such unbounded 

 animate beauty as is found to .occasionally inhabit the various 

 Sertularia, which could not but call forth wonder and admira- 

 tion. 



Possibly, however, this eminent philosopher, having in con- 

 templation the completion of that abstruse department which 

 he had adopted, did not choose to have his course diverted by 

 that which an enthusiast seated on his hobby might term a minor 

 object. 



To our marine botanists many of the objects in question must 

 also frequently occur, as some are by accident attached to Alsa* 

 and others feed on particular Fuci. Such as are searching for, 

 and deeply investigating the obscure fructification of these 

 plants, may be capable of forming an idea of the very extra- 



* The pelagic species, or those which inhabit the open sea, will quickly die in water 

 less salt, taken at the mouths of rivers, or in estuaries communicating with fresh water. 



ordinary 



