596 Remarks on Marine Animals 



though one did not live long, the other survived for at least 

 two months from the time of their arrival." 



I was lately informed by Miss Tuckerman, daughter of 

 Dr. Tuckerman of Boston, that humming-birds are readily 

 bred in cages in that city ; and she was astonished when I 

 told her that only one instance had occurred of their being 

 domesticated in England. She observed that the climate of 

 Boston, and that of England so nearly approximated, that 

 she was convinced they could be bred in this country were 

 the same attention paid to them as in America. 



These remarks are only those of an ardent admirer of 

 nature, not of an ornithologist: I skim the surface, not at- 

 tempting at the soaring scientific flights of a Wilson, an Au- 

 dubon, or a Yarrell. The remarks I have made, I know, are 

 trifling; but, according to Dr. Johnson, man is a trifling 

 animal, and every trifle that can arouse the attention of a 

 fellow trifler at least is productive of pleasurable sensations, 

 and may improve him, by adding to the stock of his trifling 

 ideas. Before we contemn trifles, let us bear in mind what 

 they have produced. The trifling incident of an apple fall- 

 ing from a tree eave rise to that train of ideas in Sir Isaac 

 Newton which led to the discovery of the attraction of gra- 

 vitation ; a ladybird pouncing on a letter that Mr. Kirby was 

 writing led him to the study of entomology ; and the sight of 

 a trifling moss (hardly half an inch high) in fructification, 

 made the heroic Mungo Park hope against hope when in 

 the midst of his distresses and privations, and inspired him 

 with that confidence in the overruling love of the Great Spirit 

 of the universe, that despondency forsook him, hope cheered 

 him, and success crowned his endeavours. 



Art. VII. Remarks on some of the Marine Animals met tvith 

 during a Sea Voyage. By J. B. Peacock, Esq. 



There are few subjects which attract more attention, during 

 a voyage, than the multitudes of marine animals which, in 

 all latitudes, from the mouth of the Thames to the shores of 

 the Indian Ocean, are continually floating past a ship ; and, 

 as the works on these subjects are generally too voluminous 

 to be in the possession of ordinary voyagers, it may not be 

 without its use to furnish a few remarks on these animals. 

 They consist chiefly of that class to which Cuvier, from the 

 destructive property possessed by most of them, of irritating 

 the skin, has applied the term Acalephae ; and they are 

 commonly known as the sea-nettles, or blubber-fish, of 

 sailors. 



