On Species 0/ Rhadinichthys /?W7i the Coal Measures. 239 



misunderstand the object for which the paper was written, 

 which he does me the honour to quote. Regarding as I do 

 the use of subgenera as introducing confusion into the bino- 

 mial system of nomenclature, which, since the time of its 

 illustrious founder, has worked so well, nothing was further 

 from my mind than to establish Rhaclinichthys as a " sub- 

 genus " at all, much less indeed as a subgenus of FalceoniscuSy 

 from which it is in fact further removed than from many 

 other genera of the family, as, for instance, Fygopterus, which, 

 small though its species be, it strongly resembles in the 

 structure of the pectoral and in the position of the dorsal fin. 

 And I think w^e may pretty safely assert that if the species 

 of Palceoniscus and Rhadiniclithys were at present living in 

 our waters, no ichthyologist would ever think of considering 

 the latter to be a " subgenus " of the former. 



Dr Dawson has been also a little hasty in characterising the 

 species oi Bhadinichthys as a "Lower Carboniferous" group. 

 B. Wardi is a true coal measure species, and, as we shall 

 presently see, it is not the only representative of its genus 

 found in the upper division of the Carboniferous rocks of 

 Great Britain, though as yet the number of species collected 

 from the coal measures is certainly smaller in comparison 

 with those wliich occur below the horizon of the Millstone 

 Grit. As yet, also, no species has been found to pass from 

 the one division of the formation into the other. 



The special object of the present communication is accord- 

 ingly the description of such species of Bhadiniclithys from 

 the coal measures of Great Britain as have as yet come under 

 my notice. 



1. Bhadinichthys Wardi, Young. 



Palceoniscus Wardi, Young (name only), Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, vol. 

 ii., pt. 1, p. QQ (Dec. 19, 1870, published 1875). 

 „ „ Ward, North Staffordshire Nat. Field Club, Addresses 



and Papers (Hanley, 1875), pp. 239, 240. 



I am indebted to Mr Ward of Longton, Staffordshire, for the 

 loan of a suite of specimens, the best which I have seen of 

 this species. The most perfect of these measures 4i inches, 

 but the extremity of the tail being broken off, its original 



