THE 



AMERICAN NATURALIST 



Vol. XLIX. October, 1915 No. 586 



EARLY PORTRAYALS OF THE OPOSSUM 



DR. CHARLES R. EASTMAN 

 American Museum of Natural History 



The quaint animal figures found in olden time works 

 on natural history are interesting not only as bearing 

 upon the contemporary state of zoological science and the 

 art of book-making, but also because many of the illus- 

 trations belong to a regular sequence or lineage which can 

 be traced back, like the textual descriptions, to primitive 

 sources. To a certain extent this has already been done, 

 or at least indicated, in the work by John Ashton, entitled 

 " Curious Creatures of Zoology." 



A subject deserving of the attention of naturalists but 

 which appears to have been neglected, is an historical and 

 systematic investigation of animal figures introduced in 

 early American cartography. Thanks to the magnificent 

 facsimile reproductions of sixteenth century maps which 

 have been published during recent years in this country 

 and abroad, abundant materials for this purpose are now 

 easily accessible. As for the "relaciones" of early voy- 

 agers and travelers in the western world, very few of 

 these have been published with scientific commentaries. 



