286 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



Cestracion Phillippi, Temm. and Schleg., Faun. Jap., Pisces, 304. 



" " Miiller and Henle, Plagiost, p. 76, 199, and plate. 



" Quoti, De Fremenville, Mag. de Zool., (1840,) and plate. 



" Zebra, Gray, Zool. Misc., 5. 



" Zebra, Richardson, Eeport, (1845,) p. 195. 



PLATE XII, fig. 2. Natural size. 



Notes. — From Simoda. Life size, 8| inches. 



This remarkable form among the Squalidce seems to be found from New Holland to Japan, 

 if the C. Zebra is the same as the more southern species, which seems probable. Gray (Annals 

 of Nat. Hist., 1, 109) doubts if Messrs. Miiller and Henle had ever seen a specimen, when they 

 expressly state that they had found nine specimens in various museums. 



The figure here published seems correct in outline, and nothing can be added as to its pro- 

 portions. 



Its general color is of a pale sepia-like brown, darker on back and fins, with a pinkish tinge 

 on lower parts of body. Irregular bands and large blotches of several shades of the same brown 

 are distributed from the pectorals to caudal, grouped in fire principal bands, with smaller ones 

 near the back between the first three large ones. The first of these last is just back of pectorals, 

 the second back of the first dorsal and in front of ventrals, spreading laterally near the abdomen. 

 The snout and cheeks are shaded also with darker brown cloudings. Small pale brown dots 

 besides the above cover the back of the head and body and about one half of the pectorals, dor- 

 sals and caudal. Ventrals, anal, and lower lobe of dorsal of a more uniform brown. 



Lacepede calls it the Squale Philip, and in Schneider's Bloch it appears as the Squalus 

 Philippi. It is figured also in Gen. Hardwicke's Illustrations, pi. 5. Mons. Bourdet de la 

 Nievre, in the Annates de la Soc. Linn, de Paris, Sep., 1825, p. 361, alludes to the discovery 

 of fossil teeth of a Cestracion. Davila, Agazziz, and Owen have also described the teeth of this 

 remarkable genus. Gerrard, on account of a difference in the markings, seems to consider the 

 Zebra as distinct from the Philippi ; but the currents of the southwestern Pacific will account 

 for its being found over so wide a district. Among the Plagiostomes the colors are subject to 

 great variations. Latham's figure in Phillipp's voyage is very correct, while the one by Lesson 

 is defective, the caudal being figured with its margin unbroken. 



It attains a larger size than is here represented, not exceeding however three feet, according 

 to the Fauna Japonica, where it is stated to be common in spring and autumn, and much sought 

 after as food by the Japanese, who eat it raw or boiled. The local name given to it in the same 

 work is Sa-siwari, derived, no doubt, from Sas-ir, to " stick in," and ivar, "to cleave," in 

 allusion to the spines in front of the dorsals. 



