Andre Thevet, who sojourned for a short time in Brazil, 

 published his " Singularitez de la France Antarctic no" 

 in 1558. His description of the "Su," in reality the 

 opossum, is paraphrased by Conrad Gesner, Edward 

 Topsell, J. E. Nieremberg and John Jonston under that 

 caption, and his grotesque caricature of the beast is re- 

 produced by these authors. It is also introduced in 

 sixteenth century cartography of the two Americas. 

 Blaeu, in his world-map of 1605, places the "Su" and 

 its descriptive legend in the region of Nova Francia; 4 

 and in the La Plata region of the same map occurs still 

 another figure of the opossum, based upon the century-old 

 drawing which appears in the Waldseemuller world-map. 

 Our Fig. 5 is taken from Thevet, and Fig. 6 from Nierem- 

 berg, whose "Historia Xatune" was published in 1635. 



In Wolfe's English edition of van Linschoten's "Voy- 

 ages," figures of the sloth and "Simivulpa" are intro- 



* See the new facsimile edition (1914) published by Dr. E. L. Stevenson 

 under the auspices of the Hispanic Society of America. 



