122 The Ottawa Naturalist. [September 



Litocems Whiteavsi, Hyatt. 1894. Phylogeny of an Acquired 



Characteristic (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, 

 Vol. XXXII) p. 475. 



On page 475 of the paper last cited Professor Hyatt writes 

 as follows, in reference to his genus Litoceras. " The type of this 

 genus, when it was first described, were the specimens, in the 

 Geological Museum at Ottawa identified as Nautilus versutus of 

 Billings, but these appear here as Litoceras Whiteavsi, since 

 there is every reason for supposing that they are not the species 

 described by Billings under the name oi versutusT A few lines 

 farther on, Professor Hyatt makes the following remarks upon 

 his Litoceras Whiteavsi. " Having examined the so-called origin- 

 als of this species" (i.e., o{ Nautilus v:rsutus, Billings) "so far as 

 they exist in the Geological Museum at Ottawa, I have found 

 that none of them came from Billings' locality. Bonne Bay, and 

 none of them agree with Billings' description. Billings' species 

 had ten septa to the inch ; this species has the sutures about one- 

 quarter of an inch apart, a difference shewing essential distinc- 

 tion." These statements are unfortunately based upon such 

 grave misapprehensions of the facts of the case as to call im- 

 peratively for some explanation. When Professor Hyatt visited 

 the Museum of the Survey there were, and are still, five speci- 

 mens of nautiloid shells from the "Quebec Group" of Newfound- 

 land on exhibition in one of the upright cases. One of these 

 then had, and still has, two labels attached to it, one printed and 

 the other written. The printed label reads, — " Newfoundland. 

 Bonne Bay, East Arm, S.-VV. side. 1861. J. R." — and the writ- 

 ten one, — "iV. versutus, type." Moreover, notwithstanding Prof 

 Hyatt's statement to the contrary, this specimen does agree with 

 Billings' description and measurements of the type and only 

 known specimen of Nautilus versutus, and it clearly has about 

 ten septa to the inch. Of the other specimens, three are labelled 

 as having been collected at Point Rich by Mr. James Richardson 

 in 1 86 1. These, in the writer's judgment, are most probably the 

 types of Nautilus insolens, Billings, and apparently also of Lite- 



