tha ex pus 
ine 
SSS te 
Na vw 
Si ys \\ 
ny rl 
On the right, a Brazilian banquet; to the left, an opossum with brood-pouch. 
[From Waldseemiiller world-map of 1516] 
known figure of an American marsupial. 
called Stmivulpa, in reality the opossum, 
A I 
In later South 
American cartography, a figure of the 
from the same source. 
tapir, but with long, drooping ears, 1s 
often substituted for that which does 
service for the opossum, and in the Blaeu 
map of 1605 the latter is introduced into 
the region that is now known as Argen- 
tina. In the same map a drawing of the 
“Su,” originally placed in the region of 
the La Plata, is shifted to the North 
American continent, in Nova Francia. 
The first illustration and description of 
this fantastic creature, which is in reality 
merely a caricature of the common opos- 
sum, is found in the work published 
Thevet 1558, entitled 
Singularitéz de la France Antartique. 
by André in 
Thevet’s figure is copied by Conrad 
Hvistoriae 
(1620), both in the text and title-page. 
Gesner in his Animalium 
Gesner, Topsell and Jonston also copy 
Thevet’s bizarre representation of the 
three-toed sloth (Bradypus_ tridaciylus 
Is) 
In connection with the figures that are 
350 
pet hes prifikioamDis 
Canclia fagires etre geors 
NOVA 
a i = 
wy 3 
Abe? , 
This is the earliest 
” 
here given of the “‘Simivulpa”’ and “Su, 
(7. e., Didelphis), which are taken from 
Thevet’s work of 1558, we may quote 
Topsell’s descriptions of these creatures, 
as given in the English Gesner (1658): 
Of the Simivulpa, or Apish Fox. 
Those which have travelled the Countrey 
of Payran [Parana], do affirme, that they 
have seen a four-footed beast, called in Latin, 
Simivulpa, in Greek, Alopecopithecos, and in 
German, Fuchssaffe: in the forepart like a 
Fox, and in the hinder part like an Ape, 
except that it had mans feet, and ears like a 
Bat, and underneath the common belly, 
there was a skin like a bag or scrip, wherein 
she keepeth, lodgeth, and carryeth her young 
ones, until they are able to provide for them- 
selves, without the help of their dam; neither 
do they come forth of that receptacle, except 
it be to suck milk, or sport themselves, so 
that the same under-belly is her best remedy 
against the furious Hunters, and other raven- 
ing beasts, to preserve her young ones, for she 
is incredibly swift, running with that carriage 
as if she had no burthen. It hath a tail like a 
Munkey: there was one of them with three 
young Whelpes taken and brought into a 
ship, but the Whelps died quickly: the old 
one living longer was brought to Szvill, and 
