Size: 3" x 5" or 5" x 3"
Copyrighted: 1890*
Lithographer: Knapp & Co.

This is a series of 50 cards, numbered from 1 to 50 on the back of each card at the bottom right. It was issued concurrently with the National Geographical series which bore the numbers 51 to 100.

The front of each card is a multi-colored illustration, in either a horizontal or vertical format, which shows a picture of "one of the most interesting specimens of the animal kingdom". Beneath the illustration is listed the common name of the species (at least, as of 1890) and, below that, the "classical appellation".

Each card has a wide, solid-color border, which I've found to be most commonly greyish on certain cards and kind of a pale, dull tan on the others. HOWEVER....there do seem to be variations in these colors, but whether they're due to differences in the original printing or color transformations that have occurred since, due to chemical exposure, etc., I can't really say. I have a small number of cards with a distinctly pale blue or blue-green border and some that I would call a dull pink border. In several cases (#10 - Angora Goat, #11 - Asiatic Elephant, #12 - Gnu, and #41 - Orang-Outang, I have acquired (or have seen) cards in both the common color and the seemingly scarcer variety, and have shown both. I'd be interested in hearing from anybody who has more definitive information in this area.

The back of each card contains identical text, in a vertical format printed in a shade of blue, with the left side containing the standard "Grind Your Coffee At Home" explaining the benefits of do-it-yourself coffee grinding, and the right side explaining what the series represents. (See example.)

These cards were also issued in an album format as "Arbuckles' Album of Illustrated Natural History", available from the company as a mail-order premium. "Cards" cut from this album may sometimes be found, although the album format didn't lend itself to this practice as readily as the State Maps and National Geographical series, since the "cards" tended to overlap each other on each album page. They are easily identifiable since the text on the back of the "card" doesn't match the illustration on the front and runs off the edges of the card.