Section IV, 1888. [ 77 ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



VIII. — Illustrations of the Fossil Fishes of the Devonian Rocks of Canada. Part IL 



By J. F. "Whiteaves. 



(Read May 24, and revised Dec. 14, 1888.) 

 Descriptions of Species from the Upper Devonian Rocks of Scaumenac Bay, P.Q. (Continued.) 



G-LYPTOLEPIS QUEBECENSIS, N. Sp. 

 (Plate V, fig. 4.) 



Size rather small for the genus, the only complete or nearly complete specimen col- 

 lected being seven inches in length ; lateral outline somewhat fusiform ; entire length 

 about four times greater than the maximum height or dejîth ; head rather short, occupy- 

 ing one-fourth of the entire length and apparently bluntly pointed ; body moderately 

 elongated, its dorsal and ventral margins almost straight and nearly parallel as far as 

 the commencement of the ventrals, behind which the body narrows rather rapidly into 

 the tail, which latter, exclusive of the fin rays, is extremely slender and much elongated. 



First dorsal small, narrow, pointed and placed a little behind the midlength, as well 

 as a little farther back than the ventrals ; second dorsal nearly twice as large as the first 

 and placed just half way between the posterior termination of the latter and the com- 

 mencement of the upper lobe of the caixdal ; caudal fin strongly heterocercal, the rays of 

 its lower lobe being much longer than those of the upper ; pectorals acutely lobate, long, 

 slender, pointed and reaching nearly to the commencement of the ventrals ; ventrals 

 placed at about the mid-length, their rays not extending nearly so far beyond the abdomen 

 as those of the pectorals or anal do ; anal fin large and j)laced very near to the commence- 

 ment of the lower lobe of the caudal. Scales small, those of the central portion of the 

 body averaging six millimetres in diameter. 



One nearly entire specimen of this species was obtained by Mr. A. li. Foord in 1880 

 in a flattened concretionary nodvile which has been sx)lit open in such a way as to expose 

 most of the right side of the fish on one surface, and the remainder of the same side on 

 the other. The characters of all the paired fins of one side are very well shown, but the 

 shape and sculpture of the cranial plates cannot be satisfactorily ascertained, and the 

 scales nowhere show the curious sculpture which is characteristic of the genus. 



On account of the small size of its scales this specimen was at first referred by 

 the writer to the Glyptolepis microlepidotus of Agassiz, though with some doubt, in the 

 Canadian Naturalist for 1881 (Vol. X, New Series, p. 32), and subsequently, to the same 

 section of the genus only, in the American Naturalist for February, 1883. As it seems im- 

 possible to decide, from the description and figure of G. microlepidotus in Agassiz's mono- 



