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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIX 



called a Foxe ape, on the belly whereof Nature hath formed an other 

 belly, wherein when it goeth into any place, it hideth her young ones, 

 and so beareth them about with her. This beast hath a body and mem- 

 bers like a foxe, feete like mens hands, or like sea cattes feete, eares 

 like a batte. It is never seene that this beast letteth her young ones 

 come forth but when they suckc. or ea>e themselves, but are alwayes 



Passing now to the seventeenth century writers, we find 

 this account of Didelphis in Raphe Hamor's 1 'True Dis- 

 course of the Present Estate of Virginia" (London, 

 1615) : 



For true it is, that the Land is stored with plenty and variety of wild 

 beastes, Lions, Bears, Deere of all sorts. . . . Beavers, Otters, Foxes, 

 Racounes, almost as big as a Fox, as good meat as a lamb, Hares, 

 wild Cats, Muske rats, Squirrels flying, and other of three or foure 

 sorts, Apossunies, of the bigu esse and liki-nosse of a Pi gge, of a moneth 

 ould, a beast of as strange as incredible nature; she hath commonly 



taketh vp into her belly, and putteth forth againe without hurt to her 

 selfe or them. 



Of each of these beasts, the Lion excepted, my selfe have many 

 wholesome and nourishing foode. 



About the same time Captain John Smith wrote the fol- 

 lowing brief characterization of the opossum, in his "De- 

 scription of Virginia" (1612) : 



An opossum hath a head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is 

 of the bignesse of a Cat. Under her belly she bath a bag, wherein she 

 lodgeth, carrieth, and suckleth her young. 



After Nieremberg, a Jesuit professor at Madrid, whose 

 work on natural history (1635) is chiefly a compilation, 

 we come to George Marcgrav and Wilhelm Piso; and 



