m CONTRIBUTIONS TO CANADIAN PALyEONTOLOGY. 



tunately overlooked the fact of Murchisoa's paper in the '' Balletin" 

 having been road twenty three or twenty lour days sooner than that of 

 Sowerliy, published in the Transactions of the Geological Society, I 

 adopted at page 23 of this Monograph the term Spirifer disjunctus, 

 Sow., while that of S. YerneuiUi has a claim to prioi-ity.'' The Sand- 

 bergers, however, (Die Verstcinerungen des Rheinischen Schichten- 

 systems in Nassau, p. 320) adopt Spirifer calcaratus, J. Sowerby, as the 

 oldest name for this species. 



Oharactei'istic specimens of Spirifera Whitneiii, Hall (which Profes- 

 sors Hall and Whitfield place as a synonym of the present species, on 

 page 237 of the Twentj'-third Reg. Rep. N. Y. Stat. Cab. Nat. Hist., 

 under the heading of S. Orestes), were collected by Mr. McConnell in 

 18S.5, from limestones apparently of Devonian or Devono-Cai'boniferous 

 age, in the easternmost range of the Rocky Mountains on the North 

 Saskatchewan. 



Spirifeea disjcjncta, var. occidentalis. (N. Var.) 

 I'late 29, figs. .5 and 5a. 



This new varietal name is here proposed for a remarkable local foi'm 

 of »S'. disjtmcta (or S. Verneuih'i), in -which the umbonal region and 

 beak of the ventral valve are strongly divergent from those of the 

 dorsal. The beak of the ventral, too, is erect i-ather than recurved, 

 while its area is broad (in the dii-ection of its height) and flattened 

 almost horizontal Ij^. 



Hay River, forty miles above its mouth, R. ( i. McConnell, 1SS7 • four 

 specimens. 



Spirifera cYnxiNiEPORMis, Hall and Whitfield. 



,S)i(>;f(Ta C(/r(i«,'t'/brHH>, Hall and Whitfield. 1870. Twenty-third Reg- Rep. N. Y. 



St. Cab. Nat. Hist., p. 23S, pi. ii, figs. 21-24. 

 C!) Spirifi'r iiprrtumtua, Schlotlieim, var. ca.ipid(itu'<, U'Archiai; and DeVerneuil. 



1841. Trans. Gfol. Soc. Lond-, 2nd Series, vol. VI, p. .309, 



pi. XXXV, figs. 7 and 7a. 



Hay Rivei', i'orty miles above its mouth, R. G. McConnell, 1887: one 

 perfect specimen in a fine state of pi-cservation. This has been com- 

 pared with authentic examples of S. cijrfina'formis from the " marly 

 beds" at Rockford, Iowa, recently received from Professor S. Calvin, 

 and has been found to ditt'er thei'efi'om only in the much larger size and 

 conseij^uently smaller number of its radiating ribs or plications. In 



