PTERICHTHYS. 95 



"superfluous as well as devoid of euphony," and therefore adopts the name of 

 Pterichthyodes, as proposed by Bleeker. 1 



Now, so far as my knowledge goes, it does not seem that the name Pterichthys, 

 as proposed by Swainson for the Scorpsenoid fish in question, has ever gained 

 currency among ichthyologists. Bleeker himself, though in the ' Tentamen ' he 

 proposed to cancel the name in the Agassizian sense on account of its previous 

 application by Swainson to Cuvier's Apistus alatus, nevertheless in his " Enumeratio " 

 uses the Cuvierian name for that species, and gives Pterichthys alatus (Swainson) 

 as a synonym. 



Therefore, though law would seem to demand that a new name should be given 

 to the Old Red Sandstone Wingfish of Agassiz and Hugh Miller, common-sense 

 seems to me to point to the retention of the time-honoured and familiar one of 

 Pterichthys. Accordingly I content myself with giving the facts. Others may alter 

 the name ; I shall not. 



Distribution of Pterichthys. — Though doubtful fragments from the Devonian 

 and Silurian of Russia were in bygone times referred by Agassiz and Pander to 

 Pterichthys? the species definitely referable to this genus have as yet only been 

 found in the Middle Old Red of Scotland (Orcadian Series) and in the Middle 

 Devonian of Germany {Pt. Bhenanus). The large plates from the Upper Old Red 

 Sandstone of Scotland, formerly familiarly slumped together by collectors as 

 "Pterichthys major" belong to species of Bothriolepis,Asterolepis and Psammosteus. 



British Species of Pterichthys. — In the ' Poissons Fossiles du vieux gres 

 rouge,' Agassiz described eight species from Scotland, namely Pt. latus, testudin- 

 arius, Milleri, productus, cornutus, can cr if or mis, oblongus, and major, and to those 

 Sir P. Egerton afterwards added Pt. quadratus from the Scottish Beds, and 

 macrocephalus from the Upper Old Red of Farlow in Shropshire. In 1888 3 I 

 showed that major of Agassiz and macrocephalus of Egerton were both referable 

 to Bothriolepis, and that the Orcadian species of Pterichthys had, as in the case of 

 those of other genera from the same beds, been needlessly multiplied by Agassiz. 

 Accordingly I then cancelled the species latus, testudinarius, and cancriformis, to 

 which Smith Woodward presently added quadratus of Egerton, besides pointing- 

 out that Agassiz' testudinarius had the priority over his comutus* But I had 

 already come to the conclusion that neither of these two last-mentioned names 



1 " On some Changes in the Names, Generic and Specific, of certain Fossil Fishes," ' American 

 Naturalist,' vol xxiii, 1899, p. 791. 



2 Pterichthys arenatus (Agassiz), " Poiss. Foss. v. gres rouge,' 1845, p. 133, pi. xxx a, fig. 3, Devonian, 

 St. Petersburg ; Pt. cellulosus (Pander) in A. von Keyserling, ' Beise in das Petschoraland,' 1846, 

 p. 292 a, Devonian, Petschora Land ; Pt. elegans (Harderi) and striatus (Pander), ' Monogr. foss. Fische 

 Sil. Syst.,' 1856, p. 63, pi. v, figs. 9, 10, 11. 



3 ' Geol. Mag.' (3), vol. v, p. 509. 



* ' Cat. Foss. Fishes Brit. Museum,' pt, ii, 1891, pp. 212 and 216. 



