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ZOOIEOGY OF EGY Pw: 


VOLWMNE ERS Tr, 


REPTILIA ann BATRACHIA., 


BY 
YOUN LOUDEIRS OM, WD IGN, 18.18. S: 


LONDON: 
BERNARD QUARITCH, 15 PICCADILLY. 
1898. 


PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, 
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 


JAN 2 0 2010 


HARVARD 
UNIVERSITY 


(The issue of this work is restricted to 100 copies.) 


CON MeN WS, 


PREFACE 
List oF IntusrRarions 1N INTRODUCTION , 
INTRODUCTION . 


PuysicaL FEATURES OF THE AREAS TREATED OF IN THIS WORK . 


ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE BEARING ON THE ARBAS TREATED OF IN THIS WORK . 


SYSTEMATIC TABLE OF CONTENTS 
LIST OF PLATES 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT 


REPTILIA 
BATRACHIA 
DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES 


INDEX 


IPRS ey de VK Ie 


eeoce 


Tue first step towards the preparation of this volume was the formation of a collection 
of the Reptiles and Batrachians of Egypt. This was an absolute necessity, as these 
groups were evidently so poorly represented in the Museums of this country and in 
those of Europe, that it would have been impossible to have derived from them any just 
conception of the extent of these constituents of the Egyptian Fauna. Moreover, in 
Great Britain, as on the Continent, it was a rare circumstance to find a specimen with 


any more definite locality assigned to it than ‘“‘ Egypt,” “‘ Nubia,” or the “ Sudan.” 


In forming the Collection which was to serve as the basis of this volume, an 
endeavour was made to obtain as many specimens as possible from a diversity of 
accurately ascertained and registered localities, distributed over as wide an area as 


practicable. 


While in Egypt, in 1892, I drew up a Memorandum pointing out the lack of 
information that existed regarding the Fauna of the country generally, but more 
especially of the Mammalia, Reptilia, and Batrachia; and further, to make this 
Circular as useful as possible, it was translated into Arabic through the courteous 
assistance of Colonel Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff, at that time Director of Irrigation, who 
also aided me in its circulation. Those who favourably replied to the Memorandum 
were furnished with the necessary materials for collecting, and with full instructions 


for the proper preservation of the specimens. 


Nearly five years were devoted to collecting, and with the result that over 
1500 specimens of Reptilia and Batrachia were brought together, of which more than 
1400 were permanently preserved. The greater part was presented to the British 


Museum; another set, all but complete, was also presented to the Museum of the 


vi PREFACE. 


Egyptian Government School of Medicine in Cairo; and a few of the more important 


species were given to some of the Museums in Europe. 


In the present volume, I have mentioned the names of the various donors, but I 
embrace this opportunity again to tender to all of them my best thanks for their 
aid so generously given; and especially to acknowledge my obligations to Captain 
R. H. Penton, R.A.M.C., who so energetically carried on in Suakin and in its 
neighbourhood the work initiated there by Colonel Sir Charles Holled Smith shortly 


before his retirement from the Governorship of the Red Sea Littoral. 


I have also to express my hearty thanks to General A. Hunter, for his hospitality 
while he was Governor of the Red Sea Littoral, and for the great assistance he gave 


me during my visit to the Suakin District. 


I have much pleasure likewise to record my indebtedness to Dr. H. P. Keatinge, 
Vice-Principal and Professor in the Medical School of Cairo, for the lively interest 
he has always evinced in my work, and for his having done as much as lay in his 


power to promote its success. 


The Curator of the Museum in the Medical School, Dr. Walter Innes, very 
materially aided me in my researches, presenting me with some valuable specimens, 
besides supplying many native names of the reptiles, which, as he is a proficient in 
Arabic, I had no hesitation in adopting. But, in order to insure accuracy, as I had no 
personal knowledge of the language, they were submitted by me to Mr. A. G. Ellis, 
of the Britis: Museum, who very kindly gave me the benefit of his advice. He is, 


however, in no way responsible for the names. 


But besides the collection of specimens in alcohol, frequent attempts were made 
to send to London living Lizards and Snakes for the purpose of having life-figures, 
in each case, prepared for this work. In these efforts no one more heartily and 
efficiently assisted me than Mr. Alan R. Birdwood, of Cairo, Sub-Director of the 
Government Lands Department, &c., to whom I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness. 
Through his instrumentality some interesting species of Reptiles and Mammals reached 


this country alive, notwithstanding the difficulties attending their transmission. 


PREFACE, Vii 


The collection of Mammalia likewise, so far as it went, was a great success; but 
this section being more difficult to deal with, and requiring more skill and labour as 
well as time for the capture and preservation of its members, a great deal in it yet 


remains to be achieved. 


The recent events in the Egyptian Sudan now throw open a vast field for 
zoological research, and I trust that those who have assisted me in the past may 
see their way to continue their assistance in the future, and so enable me to make 


the volume on the Mammalia, now in progress, as complete as possible. 


It would have been almost impossible for me to have undertaken this work had 
I not had the co-operation of the Natural History Department of the British Museum 


heartily accorded to me by Sir William Flower. 


To Mr. G. A. Boulenger, Custodian of the unrivalled Herpetological collections 
of that Institution, I feel under a debt of gratitude which it is difficult to express, 
as his assistance met me in so many ways. Not only was his vast experience 
freely proffered; but the facilities he gave to me, in the way of free access to 
the specimens under his charge, proved invaluable. But my indebtedness does 
not stop here, because I have made free use of his published Catalogues; and 
as one out of many illustrations may be mentioned the fact that the dentition of 
the various genera of Snakes given in this volume rests entirely on Mr. Boulenger’s 
Catalogue of that Group. Moreover, I have followed his classification of the Reptilia 


and Batrachia. 


I am indebted to Professor G. B. Howes for his having kindly permitted one 
of his assistants, Mr. Vanstone, to make for me a few preparations of the epidermal 


covering of the digits of some lizards. 


The Plates, illustrating the species described in this volume, have nearly all been 
drawn by Mr. P. J. Smit, some of them from life. My impression is, that Mr. Smit 
has very skilfully and successfully delineated the different species, and, in this view, L 
think that I shall have the support of other herpetologists. Moreover, he was deputed 
by me to visit the Royal Museum of Natural History, in Stockholm, in order to 

b 


vill PREFACE. 


examine and figure some Linnean types of snakes preserved in that Institution. In 
addition to doing so, he made notes on the specimens for my information, and for what 
he accomplished on that occasion and for his work generally, 1 beg to assure him of 


my high appreciation. 


The remaining Plates, 10 in number, are the work of Mr. J. Green and 
Mr. H. Gronvold. 


The map accompanying this volume was specially compiled by Mr. Reeves, of the 
Royal Geographical Society, to indicate the positions of the chief localities mentioned 
in the text, and was so effectively transferred to stone by Mr. J. Green, that the 


prints thrown off by Messrs. Mintern Brothers display remarkable clearness. 


To Professor Dr. Oscar Boettger, of Frankfort-on-the-Main; to Count M. G. Peracca, 
of Turin; to Professor F. A. Smitt, of Stockholm; to Dr. Gustav Tornier, of Berlin; 
to Professor Léon Vaillant and M. F. Mocquard, of Paris; and to Dr. Franz Werner, 
of Vienna, I beg to convey my thanks for their courtesy on the various occasions on 


which I had to apply to them for assistance. 


The Introduction is illustrated by a series of photographs, which have been very 
generously placed at my disposal for the purpose by Mrs. Theodore Bent, Mr. A. J. 
Cholmley, and Professor Flinders Petrie, to all of whom I proffer my best thanks. 
Those of the Erba and Elba groups of mountains have a special interest, as the 
regions which they illustrate are but little known. For the four photographs of 
the Libyan desert, I am indebted to the very valuable Album issued by Remelé, one 
of the members of the Expedition under the late Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs. All of these 
photographs have been very successfully reproduced by the Swan Electric Engraving 


Company. 


71 Harrington Gardens, London, 
lst November, 1898. 


Pl. 


Pl. 


Pl. 


TA, 


12 


IDL 


Pl 


> WUE 


100[, 


1 


V. 


Wie 


1X 


LIST OF 
[JLLUSTRATIONS IN INTRODUCTION. 


Map of Egypt and surrounding areas. 


Wadi Gabait, Erba Mountains. From a photograph by Mr. A. J. Cholmley. 
Jebel Erba from Wadi Khur. From a photograph by Mr. A. J. Cholmley. 


. Wadi Ambaia, Erba Mountains. From a photograph by Mr. A. J. Cholmley. 


Wadi Kukut, Erba Mountains. From a photograph by Mr. A. J. Cholmley. 


Jebel Shellal, Elba Mountains. From a photograph by Mr. A. J. Cholmley. 
Looking towards the Red Sea from Jebel Shellal, Elba Mountains. From a photograph by 
Mr. A. J. Choimley. 


Source of the Shellal Stream, Elba Mountains. From a photograph by Mrs. Theodore Bent. 
Jebel Shindui from Jebel Shellal, Elba Mountains. From a photograph by Mr. A. J. Cholmley. 


Western slope of desert at Farafreh. Reproduced from a photograph in Remelé’s ‘ Photographic 
Album of the Libyan Desert.’ 

Bab-el-Cailliaud, Oasis of Dakhel. Reproduced from a photograph in Remelé’s ‘ Photographie 
Album of the Libyan Desert.’ 


Desert landscape near Dakhel. Reproduced from a photograph in Remelé’s ‘ Photographic Album 
of the Libyan Desert.’ 

Oasis of Dakhel, escarpment of plateau in the distance. Reproduced from a photograph in Remeleé’s 
‘ Photographie Album of the Libyan Desert.’ 


Escarpment of desert plateau at Abu Roash. Alt. about 183 métres above Nile. From a photo- 
graph by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 

Desert plateau behind Gizeh, looking south-west. Alt. about 76 métres above Nile. From a 
photograph by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 

Outcrop of limestone desert behind Gizeh, looking eastward across Nile to Mokattam Hills. 
Alt. about 122 métres above Nile. From a photograph by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, 
D.C.L. 

View from top of escarpment of desert plateau above Naquada, looking across Nile valley to the 
eastern desert. Ait. about 365 métres above Nile. From a photograph by Professor W. M. 
Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 

View from top of plateau above Naquada, lcoking westward down a valley of the desert. Alt. about 
426 métres above Nile. From a photograph by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 

View through cleft from top of plateau above Naquada, looking into Nile valley. Alt. 426 metres 
above Nile. From a photograph by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 


yet 

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CORRIGENDA. 


P. xxxyv, line 29, for boselaphus read buselaphus. 

P. liv, », 10, et passim, for Lefébvre read Lefebvre. 

P. lviii, ,, 3, for genus read species. 

4, omit the words and designated the species B. 


” ” 


mos 22, for Deodorus read Diodorus. 


oe 


-22, 4, 11, for pb closes read qcleoslt jlb. 


. 33, lines 19 & 28, for Khartoum read Khartum. 
. 44, fig. 3, for Genoa Museum read British Museum. 


. 142, line 23, for yxV Jy read yaad¥ Spy. 
. 179, Table, for lichtenstenii read lichtensteinii. 
. 215, lines 31 & 37, for Muscat read Maskat. 


-C- _o- 


1) 

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P. 62, line 9, et passim, for ragazzi read ragazzir. 
P 

P 

12 

P. 328, line 36, for ree &. ead le,5 Re. 

P. 


. 339, 4, 34, for bikurun read bilkurun. 


P. 358, ,, 15, for and also read but it does not occur. 


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INTRODUCTION. 


THE genius of the French produced, during the first three decades of this century, 
that magnificent work entitled ‘ Description de Egypte, ou Recueil des observations et 
des recherches qui ont été faites en Kigypte pendant l’expédition de l’armée Frangaise.’ 
This great achievement dealt with the country in nearly all its aspects, each department 
of research having been intrusted to a savant well qualified to expound it. In those 
days, however, zoologists were not alive to the importance of recording the exact 
localities in which the species they described were found; and the French naturalists 
were no exception in this respect, so far as the Reptiles and Batrachians were concerned, 
as all the information put on record regarding their distribution is that they came 
from ‘ Egypt.’ 

The present work contains some additional facts bearing on the Reptiles and 
Batrachians of Egypt and their distribution, and thus supplements, at the close of the 
century, during the occupation of Egypt by the British, the information brought 
together by the French at the beginning of the century, when they were, for the time 
being, masters of the Valley of the Nile. 

In drawing up this account of the Reptiles and Batrachians of Egypt it would have 
been an easy matter to have arbitrarily drawn a line from east to west at the First 
Cataract, and to have excluded all species found to the south of it, and thus to have 
confined this description to the area corresponding to the Egypt of the ancients. But 
Egypt of the past is no longer the Egypt of the end of the nineteenth century, which 
has now its frontier in the Nile Valley as far south as Wadi Halfa, and its frontier of 
the Red Sea littoral, at Tokar. 

Moreover, as the physical characters of the region on the east bank of the Nile 
lying to the south of the arbitrary line are practically identical with those existing to 
the north of it, and as the same is also true of the corresponding areas on the west 
side of the river, there is every reason why the consideration of the zoological features 
of these areas should be extended to the political frontier; and had there been any 

C 


xi INTRODUCTION. 


diversity in their physical conditions, the argument for their conjoint consideration 
would have been even more cogent. 

In a State surrounded by civilized neighbours and with a well-defined political 
frontier, any account professing to deal with its animals would naturally be restricted 
to those found within its borders; but as Egypt presents neither of these conditions, 
and as the animals occurring in the semi-civilized States outside of it are almost 
unknown, it is desirable in dealing with Egypt to enumerate the few facts that have 
been ascertained regarding the fauna of the adjacent areas. Had this account been 
restricted to Egypt as accepted by the ancients—a mere fragment of the great natural 
highway of animal distribution in North-east Africa—to the exclusion of its adjacent 
areas, it would have completely failed to impart any just conception of the character 
of its fauna. 

This work therefore comprises, not merely an account of all the Reptiles and 
Batrachians hitherto recorded from Egypt proper, but also includes those that are 
known to occur in the desert regions on both sides of the Nile as far south as Wadi 
Halfa, the present temporary frontier in the Nile Valley; and in order also to convey 
some idea of the Reptilian and Batrachian fauna of its extreme southern frontier, the 
species that have been met with in the district of Suakin, on the littoral of the Red 
Sea, are likewise included. Unfortunately, the Arabian and Nubian deserts, almost 
throughout the whole of their extent, are as yet a sealed book to zoological science. 
Schweinfurth has done much towards the elucidation of their flora, but nothing 
equivalent to his researches in botany has as yet been attempted for their zoology. 

Now, however, that the brutal rule of the successor of the Mahdi has opposed to it, 
in actual conflict, the irresistible resources of Western civilization, fully resolved on its 
destruction, there is every hope that when the inevitable end has been accomplished ! it 
will be followed by topographical, geological, mineralogical, zoological, and botanical 
surveys not only of the regions to the east aud west of the Nile, but of the entire area 
of a rejuvenated and vastly extended Egypt. 

To the north-east, the boundary-line is drawn from Port Said to Suez; but the 
Wells of Moses in the neighbourhood of the latter town are the eastern limit, and 
Marsa Matru on the Mediterranean, about 241 kilom. west of Alexandria, is 
the western boundary. As yet, however, only four species of reptiles have been 
obtained from Marsa Matru, and fourteen reptilian and two batrachian species 
from the Libyan oases, excludiug the Fayum, while from the centre of the Libyan 
desert only one reptile, viz. Celopeltis monspessulana, has as yet been reported. 
Vhe difficulties that attend travel in the Libyan desert are proverbial and cannot 
but always render the study of its zoology a most difficult undertaking. ‘The 
circumstance, moreover, that explorers who have visited that desert and interested 


‘ Since the above was in type, the destruction of Mahdism has been achieved by Sir Horatio Herbert 
Kitchener ; and the frontier of Egypt bas been re-established as far south as Fashoda and Sobat. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. xi 


themselves in its zoology have almost invariably selected the winter months for 
their journeys seems largely to account for the very meagre knowledge we, as yet, 
possess of its Reptiles. 

The few species that have been recorded from the Nile Valley as far south as 
Khartum, Kordofan, and Sennaar are incidentally noticed, so that a still wider horizon 
is brought into view. 


PuHysIcAL FEATURES OF THE AREAS TREATED OF IN THIS WorK. 


Tue area lying approximately between 16° and 17° 40' N. lat. is a zone in which an 
annual struggle for the mastery takes place in May and June between the northerly 
and southerly winds. ‘The wind from the latter direction follows the sun in its course 
to the north of the Equator and carries along with it rain-clouds brought up from the 
Indian Ocean; but as it approaches this zone it encounters opposition from the north 
wind that blows up the Nile Valley and over its deserts, and is ultimately neutralized 
by it. The climatic conditions over this debatable zone vary annually, more or less, 
according to the relative strength of the two winds. ‘The immense area to the south 
of this zone, as far as the Equator, is characterized by the periodical fall of rain, 
generally between the months of April and October, and as the Equator is approached 
the rain becomes more and more torrential. ‘The northern limit of these periodical 
rains may be placed about the junction of the Atbara with the Nile. However, even 
so far south as Khartum, where the rain begins rarely before June or July, and lasts 
to September, the rainfall is frequently very deficient. These periodical rains, where 
fully developed, exercise a remarkable influence on the character of the flora, and 
consequently also on the fauna. To the north of 17° 40', on the other hand, as far 
almost as the head of the Delta of the Nile, there is a complete absence of periodical 
rains ; indeed the entire region is practically rainless, and thus the sparse flora and 
the fauna differ entirely from those of the southern portion of the region of 
periodical rains. When rain does fall north of 17° 40!, it is only as fitful local 
storms of short duration after long intervals of absolute drought, which may extend to 
years. ‘These storms are generally violent and attended by high wind, thunder and 
lightning, the rain being precipitated in torrents, filling the empty khors and flooding 
the plains. Whilst the area may be thus generally characterized, the portion of it 
Jying near to the shores of the Red Sea, traversed by high mountains, is more highly 
favoured, as storms of rain more frequently break along their heights. 

The lateral extent of Upper Nubia is clearly defined on the east by the more or less 
forest-clad slopes of the promontories of the Abyssinian plateau, and on the west by 
the main stream of the Nile. Its southern half falls within the so-called Eastern 


o2 


Xiv INTRODUCTION. 


Sudan, and a purely arbitrary limit to its southern extension may be placed in the 
neighbourhood of the sources of the Tumat, a branch of the Blue Nile, and of those of 
the Sobat, a leading affluent of the White Nile. The almost rainless region of Lower 
Nubia has had its northern limit placed at Assuan; but as the crystalline mass of 
mountains that traverses it from south to north does not stop short there, but is 
continued along the so-called Arabian desert to Wadi Araba, the entire region 
between the Nile and the Red Sea from Suakin to near the head of the Gulf of Suez 
may be dealt with as a whole; there being, as has been already said, no natural 
barriers to interfere with the distribution of animal species, and the climate throughout 
being transitional. 


A brief outline will now be given of the main features of the entire area from the 
Bayuda Peninsula to Suakin, and northwards to the Delta. The first portion to be 
considered is the peninsula enclosed by the great curve of the Nile between Metammeh 
and Ambukol, occasionally erroneously called on maps the Desert of Bayuda, but which 
partakes in reality of the character of a savannah. From the position it occupies in 
the Nile Valley, it is a region in which the struggle between the southerly and northerly 
winds is felt in its full intensity. In days of great heat also it is subject to numerous 
whirlwinds, that rise in columns up to 45 métres, charged with fine dust, the product 
of the denuding action of the winds on the sandstones. It lies just within the area in 
which the periodical rains make themselves felt, but they are so slight that rain seldom 
falls on more than fifteen days throughout the year, the rainy season occurring between 
May and August. Sometimes, however, two consecutive seasons may be actually 
rainless. ‘The rain is rapidly absorbed by the sandy soil, and in about 24 hours after 
its fall all trace of it is lost, except in the vivifying influence which it exercises on the 
parched vegetation. 

The now memorable route between Metammeh and Korti, over which a column of 
British troops marched in 1884, is described as almost perfectly level. It traverses 
an extensive plain with low ranges of hills, showing in places abundant signs of 
cultivation. Numerous wadis are passed through, in which long coarse grass and 
groups of acacia-trees are met with. The vegetation, sparse though it be, supports 
numerous herds of sheep, goats, and camels, the property of the nomadic Beduins 
who inhabit the district. The soil in places, during the rainy season, can be profitably 
cultivated, and there are numerous wells. ‘To the east of this route the centre of the 
peninsula is occupied by a group of mountains (Jebel Magaga), consisting of primitive 
rocks, sandstones, and volcanic lavas and scorie, similar to those found in the 
mountain-range along the coast of the Red Sea. The peaks of these mountains are 
said to rise from 1014 métres to 1115 métres above the level of the sea. The half of 
the peninsula to the north-east of this central area of elevation has much the same 
characters as those met with along the Metammeh-Korti route. The western portion is 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. XV 


traversed, from Khartum to Ambukol, by a depression known as the Wadi Mokattam, 
along which probably once flowed an arm of the Nile, and to the west of it is a short 
ridge of hills consisting of pink sandstone, from which numerous lines of drainage run 
into the Wadi Mokattam, each generally with a certain amount of vegetation of the 
usual desert character. On the other side of this ridge, which is known as Jebel 
Simrieh, there is another long and important valley, the Wadi Malik, along which part 
of the drainage of northern Dar-Fur percolates to the Nile. This wadi, which is of 
_ considerable breadth in some parts of its course, and narrow at others, is dominated 
in places by castellated rocks, and along its course it is marked by a variety of thorny 
shrubs and by a fair amount of grass. Between Abu Gus, where the wadi debouches 
into the Nile, and Sotahl some distance up the valley, the Wells of Mahttl are 
situated in a miniature plain surrounded on all sides by sand-hills. Similar wells are 
found to the east of the Nile on the route to Suakin, At some distance beyond the 
Wells of Mahtil the valley narrows and becomes choked with sand, but afterwards it 
widens and shows signs of the presence of water in quantities, and is thickly wooded 
with acacias. The route to Khartum traverses the Wadi Sotahl, which has even 
a more dense vegetation than the Wadi Malik. Leaving this wadi, the route lies 
through ravines and over rocky plateaus, past other wells, and crosses over a tract 
having coarse grass but no trees, to enter the Wadi Mdesis, in which are many 
varieties of acacia. A considerable quantity of water passes down this valley in the rainy 
season. ‘lhe route then passes into the Wadi Mokattam, and in the neighbourhood 
of the Wells of Gabra there is an area thickly wooded with acacias and euphorbias. 

It is evident from the foregoing slight sketch of the general features of the Bayuda 
Peninsula that it does not altogether merit the term desert generally applied to it, 
seeing that it gives support in places to extensive herds of goats, sheep, and camels. 
From the presence of so much vegetation it is doubtless tenanted by many species of 
lizards and snakes, and from its physical configuration it may possibly be the meeting- 
ground of species from Central, Western, North-western, and South-eastern Africa. 
Von Barnim and Dr. R. Hartmann !, on their journey from Debba to Khartum, met 
with the following reptiles, viz. :—Stenodactylus elegans, Tarentola annularis, Varanus 
griseus, V. ocellatus, Cerastes cornutus, Echis carinatus, and Bitis arietans, and two 
species of the genus Agama. All of the foregoing identified reptiles, with the exception 
of Varanus ocellatus and Bitis arietans, are present in Egypt proper to the south of 
the Delta. The peninsula is absolutely devoid of permanently-running streams, is 
only very slightly affected by the sometimes long intermittent periodical rains, is 
intensely hot, the heat attaining at times to 41° Cent. in the shade, with a diurnal 
range occasionally of as much as 35° Cent., and has an extremely dry atmosphere. 

On the other side of the Nile Valley from the Bayuda Peninsula lies the tract of 
country intervening between the river and Suakin. ‘This region is traversed by 

‘ Reise Nord-Ost-Afr. 1859-60. 


XYV1 INTRODUCTION. 


caravan-routes of great antiquity, and as it has been frequently crossed by modern 
explorers and recently by newspaper correspondents, its physical characters are well 
known, but not so those of the country lying immediately to the north of it. The 
distance between the towns of Berber and Suakin is about 500 kilom. In the 
neighbourhood of Berber or El Mekheref, 350 métres above the sea-level, there is 
more or less cultivation, but the extent to which itis carried on depends entirely on the 
rainfall. A few miles beyond the town the route passes the Wells of Mahobeh, where 
there are a few trees and some scanty vegetation, and proceeding onwards crosses 
Wadi Selem, which is occasionally an unbroken field of sorghum, but in unfavourable 
seasons a mere sterile plain with straggling tufts of dry yellow grass. ‘The route 
traverses a dreary sandy plain covered more or less with loose black rocks, some of 
them standing erect, one more prominent than the others being a well-recognized land- 
mark about 11 métres high, and known to the natives as Abu Odfa, but its base is 
being slowly eaten away by the incessant sand-drift. The plain rises very gradually to 
the east, and when nearly 96 kilom. from Berber have been accomplished, the famous 
shifting sand-dunes of O Bak are reached, enclosing a series of wells, in the neighbour- 
hood of which there is a scanty vegetation, and occasionally, after rain, a crop of 
sorghum is raised by the wandering Bisharin families frequenting the place. Beyond 
O Bak, the route crosses the broad plain of Wadi Laemeb that supports a little herbage 
of coarse grass. The main or northern route continues to ascend, and crossing a 
number of rocky ridges descends into the valley of Ariab, with its wells of excellent 
water. This valley is about 8 kilom. long and 3 to 4 kilom. in breadth, and is distant 
about 180 kilom. from Berber, and lies at an elevation of nearly 548 metres above 
the sea. It is covered rather thickly, for a valley of this region, with acacias and coarse 
erass, which afford a plentiful supply of food for the herds of goats, sheep, and camels 
owned by the nomads who frequent it. Trees in this valley are rare, but the hollow 
trunk of one in the neighbourhood of the wells is large enough to give shelter to a 
man. ‘There are no permanent streams in this valley, neither in any of the other 
numerous khors and wadis of this mountain-range, but occasional storms break over it 
and dew falls at night in winter. Beyond this, low granite hills are passed, and 
then the traveller enters the narrow Wadi Yumga, and again passing rocky hills, 
traverses a broad level rocky plain surrounded by mountains to enter the Wadi Kokreb. 
This part of the country does not merit the term desert, as it consists of a succession 
of deep valleys more or less characterized by the existence of good pasture and a few 
trees that afford shade, some of the plains even boasting of a fairly rich vegetation. 
‘The khors in this neighbourhood teem with animal and vegetable life, gazelles and 
hares being common. Beyond Wadi Kokreb the road ascends a spur over 700 metres 
high above the sea, and enters the Wadi Ohabdl, 8 kilom. in length, closed in by hills, 
treeless, and strewn with fragments of porphyry and greenstone. ‘The upper end of 
this wadi opens on a broad barren plain covered with fragments of rock, but its dry 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. XVil 


watercourses boast a coarse vegetation, with some acacias and dracene. Continuing 
onwards, the route passes up the Khor Haratri, a winding defile between the granite 
slopes of the mountains, and with two wells. The head of this khor forms the watershed 
between the Nile and the Red Sea at an elevation of 880 métres. A slight descent 
follows, and then the great plain of the Wadi Ahmed is entered, with the grand 
mountain known as Taabid at its further end, with bold rocky precipices running down 
to the broad plain, strewn with fragments of trap and porphyry, excepting in its lower 
parts, and supporting a few trees and shrubs, and, at rare intervals, small patches of 
dhurra. After another easy descent over sparse grass and past a variety of trees, 
followed by a much steeper declivity over rocky ground where the hills close in, the 
route leads to the tortuous Wadi Omareg, which is nearly level and about | to 3 kilom. 
in width. A ridge is then crossed and the path descends into the valley of Sinkat, at 
an elevation of 880 métres above the sea, a favourite resort with the Hadendowahs of 
Suakin for grazing their flocks at the season when rain occasionally falls, from August 
and onwards, until the vegetation becomes once more dried up, when they retire to the 
littoral plain which benefits by the humid atmosphere of the Red Sea. This valley 
runs nearly north and south, and is closed in on the east by Jebel Erbab and on the 
west by Jebel Ayakeb. Schweinfurth’s description of the vegetation of these valleys will 
suffice to prove how comparatively fertile they are. He says :—‘“‘'This rich covering 
of vegetation is, however, confined to the side of the mountains towards the sea; on 
the other side, as soon as the second pass is left behind, the rocks are bare, and only 
the lowest part of the valley is covered with anything of luxuriant verdure. Acacias, 
growing so closely as almost to form a hedge, and gigantic clumps of the grass-green 
Salvadora, shoot up like great dishes of green salad from the cheerless space around.” 
And again, in describing the valley of Harrasa, in the Erkowit mountain, which attains 
to 1293 métres in height, he remarks, this valley “discloses the whole flora of the 
Abyssinian highland in wonderful and complete luxuriance. Kuphorbiee and dracenze 
deck the mountain in masses which might almost be reckoned by millions, so that the 
slopes in the distance have the appearance of being covered with huge black patches. 
Paelegecits Halfway between Singat (Sinkat) and Erkoweet we halted ina wady... . 
which bore the name of Sarroweet. What a prospect! how gay with its variety of hue, 
green and red and yellow! Nothing could be more pleasant than the shade of the 
acacia, nothing more striking than the abundance of bloom of the Abyssinian aloe, 
transforming the dreary sand beds into smiling gardens. Green were the tabbes-grass 
and the acacias, yellow and red were the aloes, and in such crowded masses, that I 
was involuntarily reminded of the splendour of the tulip-beds of the Netherlands; but 
here gardens lay in the midst of a waste of gloomy black stone.” The similarity of the 
life on these heights to that of the Abyssinian highland is not confined to plant-life 
alone, as that remarkable rodent Lophiomys is common to both regions, and associated 
with it is found Oreotragus saltator; but unfortunately very little is known of the 


xvii INTRODUCTION. 


fauna of the Suakin range. From Sinkat a descent is made through a defile in parts 
closed in by mountains, and sometimes so narrow in its bed that there is only space 
for the water to precipitate itself when the gorge is in flood. Below, the route 
debouches on the littoral plain of Suakin at Otao. 

The town of Suakin, in lat. 19° 17’ N., and long. 37° 20’ E., purchased by Egypt 
from Turkey in 1865, is situated on the seaward face of an extensive plain backed to 
the west by the Erkowit and Sinkat mountains. In its geographical position it 
resembles Massowah. The coral-reef is traversed by a long, narrow, deep channel, 
a feature more or less characteristic of all the coast-line where khors debouch into the 
sea. According to Dr. Klunzinger, the fresh water which is transmitted along them 
proves destructive to the coral polypes, so that wherever fresh water flows to the sea 
it keeps open a clear passage through the reef. The sahil, tehama, or maritime 
sandy plain has a gentle upward slope towards the base of the hills for a distance 
of 13 to 20 kilom. It is more or less undulating throughout, due chiefly to the fact 
that it is traversed at intervals by broad shallow lines of drainage from the mountains, 
along and in which vegetation is usually richer than on the intervening portions; 
but the plain as a whole is here and there covered with acacias and with tabbes- 
grass, the favourite fodder of the flocks, and by numerous other desert shrubs and 
plants which have been indicated by Professor Schweinfurth. The country about 
Suakin itself is tolerably open for miles to the west and north, but to the south-west, 
in the direction of Tamai, and near the base of the hills, there is a belt of thick 
undergrowth which extends as far as ‘Tokar. The acacia-scrub occurs in dense patches, 
in places rising to 2 or 3 métres in height, with intervening areas of grass and small 
shrubs. At Tokar, situated on the open plain close to the debouchment of the Baraka, 
and about 80 kilom. to the south of Suakin, the plain is covered by a thick layer of 
alluvium brought down the Khor Baraka after the periodical rains have fallen, and on 
it either dhurra or other crops are grown. The only other delta in any way com- 
parable to this one, along the coast-line to the north, appears to be the small delta at 
Marsa Durrur. Numerous herds of camels, goats, and sheep are grazed on this 
maritime plain by their Arab owners. It is occasionally visited by ostriches from the 
savannah country to the west. Rhinoceroses have been seen on it, and a species 
of wild ass (? Equus africanus) is well known in the neighbourhood of Tokar, where 
a mountain bears its name. The usual tenants of the tehama and its slopes are the 
following animals:—Erinaceus ethiopicus, Hyena crocuta, H. striata, Proteles cristatus, 
Canis variegatus, C. famelicus, C. pallidus, Felis maniculata, F. caracal, F. serval, 
Mellivora capensis, Ictonyx zorilla, also Psammomys obesus, Gerbillus pyramidum, 
Isomys variegatus, Hystrix cristata, Gazella isabella, G. semmerringi, and members 
of the genera Genetta, Herpestes, Lepus, Xerus, and Acomys, with a diversity of 
reptiles to be mentioned hereafter. 

The mountain-range running north from Suakin is separated from the spurs of the 


REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. INTROD, PLATE I. 


Jebel Erba from Wadi Khur. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. xix 


Abyssinian highlands by the valley of the Baraka and by other wadis. Jebel Erbab, 
about 1547 metres in height, is the highest peak in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Suakin, but, a little to the north, Jebel Kerib, behind Durrur, rises to about 1654 métres 
above the level of the sea. Still greater heights occur in the Erba group further north, 
where, according to Mr. Bent !, who visited these mountains, in 1896, accompanied by 
Mrs. Bent and Mr. A. J. Cholmley, one peak, which he calls Nabidua, attains to an 
elevation of 2286 metres. Krom this group of mountains a long ridge of crystalline 
rocks extends to the west, and is met with at Jebel Shikr on the route from Abu 
Hamed to Darawi. 

Mr. A. B. Wylde? describes the coast-line from Suakin to Rawai as presenting a 
wonderful sameness. Stretches of flat country or miniature plains divide the different 
khors, in the vicinity of which the land is more irregular, and more vegetation is 
met with, chiefly acacias, tamarisks, aloes, camel-thorn, and other desert trees. When 
he visited the tehama at Rawai he found it covered with acacias in ful) flower, and 
with fresh green grass; larks and other birds were singing, and butterflies and bees 
were hovering over and settling on flowers. One of the valleys of the Erba group 
visited by Mr. Wylde was shut in between two high mountain-ridges, and as he 
followed it up vegetation improved, and the rocks here and there were festooned 
with ferns. He says the western side of the group, southwards to the Amarara 
Asorterba, must be covered with plenty of vegetation and pasturage. The rain that 
falls on this group of mountains and along the range as far south as the commencement 
of the Suakin mountains is carried off on the western side apparently by two extensive 
systems of khors. ‘The larger, known as the Wadi Amur, is described as an oasis in 
some parts of its course, and it appears to reach the Nile at Abu Hamed. The exact 
course of the second, the Wadi Hayet, is unknown. ‘The relations also of the Erba 
group of mountains to the plateau of the Nubian desert have yet to be ascertained. 

Mr. Bent’s excursion, above referred to, was made in the month of February from the 
small port of Mohamed Ghul. He first directed his steps to the valley system on the 
north of the Erba group (Introd. Pls. I. & I1.), and to reach it his way lay through wadis 
between low barren mountains and dry river-beds studded here and there with acacia- 
trees, other watercourses being filled with sand. Ascending and traversing a narrow 
pass he reached a plateau about 610 métres above the sea, and, beyond, entered a valley 
in which there was a small pond of water visited nightly by partridges, pigeons, and 
sand-grouse, the bottom of the valley being sparsely supplied with vegetation, seemingly 
only resorted to by gazelles. In a neighbouring valley, Wadi Gabait (Introd. Pl. 1.), 
an old mining district, the senna-plant was growing in such abundance that the leaf- 
gathering of this drug is one of the industries of the Arabs. Mr. Bent then entered 
desert valleys in which everything was dried up, the tufts of grass being as black as if 


* Geogr. Journ., Oct. 1896, p. 335. > *83 and ’87 in the Sudan. 1888, 
d 


xX INTRODUCTION. 


they had been charred and had not had rain for years; but in one valley to the west 
of Erba, a favourite nursery for camels, there were masses of Salvadora and a variety of 
other shrubs. Fine deep gaps occur in the mountain, and in the Wadi Khur (Introd. 
Pl. I.), on its south side, amid stupendous rocky scenery, the floor of the valley was 
rich with vegetation, consisting largely of tamarisks and other shrubs. Deep pools of 
lovely water were present in the lateral gorges, in which grew bulbous plants, rushes, 
and other water-plants. ‘lhe Wadi Sellal is held in high estimation by the Arabs, 
by reason of its well and its acacia-trees, but, while Mr. Bent visited it, its charms 
were hidden by a raging sand-storm. Of the many wadis that penetrate the group the 
Wadi Ambaia (Introd. Pl. II.) is the most important, as it extends right into the heart 
of the mountain, and is a pastoral valley, well inhabited, ‘‘a delicious spot amid fantastic 
boulders, with rich vegetation, and a running stream forming deep green pools among 
the rocks.” Similar conditions seem to prevail among the surrounding mountains, and, 
in the Wadi Kukut (Introd. Pl. II.), Mr. Bent visited a pastoral village, where he 
found women engaged in making butter in skins tied to a tree. 

The next tract of country to be considered is the region intervening between Dardwi, 
below Assuan, and the town of Berber. A fair conception can be gained of it from 
Burckhardt’s account of his journey between these two points. He followed, in reverse 
order, the route over which Bruce had travelled 50 years before on his return from 
Abyssinia. 

Starting from Berber, the route, after the plain that skirts the bank of the Nile has 
been traversed for a short way, lies across Khor Homar, one of the numerous lines of 
drainage that run to the Nile from the east. This khor may not now merit its name 
—‘“ Khor of the Wild Ass,’—as the shrieking and puffing of railway engines have in 
all likelihood scared the animal away, but in Burckhardt’s day wild asses and gazelles 
were found in this part of the desert. These khors generally support a few trees, 
chiefly acacias ; and the plain, eighty-five years ago, was the breeding-place of ostriches, 
as Burckhardt, on his tedious journey across it, picked up numerous broken pieces 
of the egg-shells of these birds. It was also frequented by lizards about a foot 
in length. Passing more wadis, the route crosses the western end of the great 
Wadi Amur, already mentioned under the account of the Erba mountains, and then 
reaches some low isolated hills, among which are situated the wells of Bir-el-Nejem, 
usually choked with sand. Further on, an immense sandy and pebbly plain is 
traversed until the wild mountain-range of Shikr is entered, rising about 504 métres 
above the plain. ‘This range consists of huge granite blocks heaped on one another 
in the wildest confusion, and it forms the watershed between the Nile at Abu Hamed 
and the Wadi Allaki to the north, the elevation of the Nubian plateau being 
approximately 450 métres above the sea. Water is found in the Shikr range among 
the granite blocks, in a winding valley full of dhum-palms, the natural reservoirs being 
difficult to approach, as they are situated at the end of a narrow passage in a cleft 


REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. INTROD. PLATE II. 


Wadi Ambaia, Erba Mountains. 


Wadi Kukut, Erba Mountains. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. XX1 


among the masses of granite. Here Burckhardt observed some pigeons flying about 
in the neighbourhood of these mgheta. Leaving these mountains, the route lies over a 
sandy plateau very subject to mirage, and cut up from east to west by numerous wadis 
in some of which water collects, and in which vegetation is consequently present in 
the form of shrubs, with good pasturage here and there. One wadi is distinguished by 
the number of tamarisks (Tamaris nilotica) found in it, and thus, according to Arab 
fashion, it bears the name of that plant (tarfa), and is known as Wadi Tarfaeh. In 
the same way, some of the wadis, as has been seen, bear the names of mammals, and, it 
may be added, that others are named after birds. ‘he vegetation of the Wadi Tarfaeh 
is not confined, however, to the tamarisk, as the senna-plant and dhum-palm are also 
present, and, this being so, it is one of the most pleasant wadis met with on the route 
between Berber and Darawi. Passing over a plain studded with many granite rocks, 
and crossing other wadis, in some of which dhum-palms afford grateful shade, a 
mountainous country is passed and more wadis, one of which, the Wadi el Berd, in 
Burckhardt’s time, was overgrown with trees, and here in the month of March he 
observed flocks of white birds of the size of geese flying northwards. As this valley is 
more or less open to the Nile, it gets a cool breeze; hence the term “cold” applied 
to it by the Arabs. In other valleys beyond, with their beds marked by acacias, 
gazelles are present. The route continues over coarse uneven ground of sand and 
stones to the broad Wadi el Tanashi, after which a mountain-ridge is crossed to 
enter the sandy Wadi Ongat, thickly overgrown with acacias and Cucumis colocynthis. 
The route then crosses the main western branch of the Wadi Allaki, about 150 métres 
in breadth, with excellent pasturage and many trees, according to Burckhardt. ‘This 
wadi is held in high veneration by the Arabs, who, in entering it, salute it with great 
solemnity, and throw a handful of dhurra on the ground as an offering to the good 
spirit whom they suppose presides over it. Beyond this branch of the Wadi Allaki, 
another line of.drainage, the Wadi el Murra, is traversed, possessing a well forty feet 
deep, but the water is bitter (murra) compared with the sweet water of the Nile. 
Stony hills are crossed and rocky passages are next met with before the Wadi Nedir 
is entered, with its numerous acacia-trees, and with its large natural basin, in which 
rain-water occasionally accumulates. After crossing a sandy plain with isolated granite 
rocks, ascending and descending a rocky ridge and passing over a wild stony tract of 
desert, difficult for camels, the wells of Haimar, slightly to the south-west of Korosko, 
are reached. They are situated on a small sandy plain surrounded by craggy hills. 
Leaving these wells. behind, the route passes through a rocky mountainous country 
thickly covered with loose stones, across wadis with the usual sparse vegetation of 
acacia-trees, over sandy or granite-strewn plains and low mountains, one of the latter 
with luxuriant pasturage and abundant and excellent food for camels at its base, over 
more extensive sandstone plains, past high mountains and low hills, through more 


wadis, some of which are shut in by grotesque granite cliffs of smooth shining rocks of 
d 2 


Xx1i INTRODUCTION. 


the deepest black, their narrow beds overgrown with acacias, until, after a succession of 
such scenes, the route ends at Darawi. 

The whole of this region seemingly derives its water direct from the heavens; 
springs, if present, being excessively rare. As the Arabs almost never divulge the 
localities where mgheta occur, except under great pressure, the syenitic character of some 
of the mountain-ridges traversing this part of the desert leads to the supposition that 
these natural reservoirs of water are not so rare as the Arabs would lead the traveller to 
believe, and, consequently, that animal life in this area is not so hard pressed for water 
as has been generally supposed. ‘he circumstance also that the wadis, in the central 
portion of the so-called desert, seem nearly in every instance to support a certain 
amount of vegetation is evidence that the great area throughout its lines of drainage 
is also characterized by the presence of a fair amount of animal life. The probability 
is that rcdent life in these valleys is well represented, doubtless by no great diversity 
of species, but by many individuals. A gazelle is not uncommon, but the species has 
yet to be determined. ‘The wild sheep, Ovis tragelaphus, is present in the district 
of Wadi Halfa, but it is evidently now being rapidly extirpated by the introduction 
among the Arabs of modern arms of precision. The ibex (Capra sinaitica) is also 
found in all localities suitable to its habits of life, and likewise a species of Hyraa. 
Howeyer, beyond the record of the occurrence of a few species of Reptiles and 
Batrachians in the neighbourhood of Wadi Halfa, we are absolutely ignorant of the 
character of the fauna of this portion of Nubia. 

‘The heat experienced over the foregoing tract of country is perhaps as great as in 
any other part of Africa, and the cold at night and in early morning proportionately 
so, the diurnal range of temperature being between 5° Cent. and 47° Cent., or 
even more. It is very rarely visited by storms of rain, but when they do occur they 
are generally in the form of hurricanes of great intensity, the denuding power they 
exercise on the desiccated desert being enormous, and the vivifying influence on 
vegetation magical. 

The tract of the Nubian desert lying between Abu Hamed! and Korosko is 
seemingly more sterile than the great region traversed by Burckhardt. Grant ?, who 
had great experience of desert-travel, crossed it with Speke on their return, in 1863, 
from Central Africa, and described it as one of the most barren and hottest regions he 
had ever travelled over; but his journey, it must be borne in mind, was made in the 
month of May. The sandy and in parts pebble-covered desert plain to the north of 
Abu Hamed, with its feebly-marked khors and scattered hills, is throughout the greater 


* Linant de Bellefonds, writing about 1828, says of this place :—‘‘ Sa situation au sud des cataractes, et Ja 
présence des bois qui les avoisinent rendent cependant le pays relativement pittoresque. . . Les bois sont 
remplis de singes qui, 4 approche des hommes, s’enfuient dans les doums ou palmiers éyentails.” When 
Sir S. Raker was at Abu Hamed in 1861, he says the sterile desert extended to the margin of the Nile. 

* Proc. Roy. Geogr. Suc. 1884, p. 326. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. Xxiil 


part of its extent, in the month of May, practically destitute of vegetation; but Grant 
saw a few birds and two kinds of lizards, and from the circumstance that the ground 
was full of burrows of small rodents, the probability is that this plain after rain is 
not the absolute atmur that Grant supposed it to be. 

After the route has surmounted the escarpments, it traverses the elevated plateau of 
Nubian sandstone, and crosses a succession of rocky ridges running parallel with 
others rising from 122 to 304 métres above the valley, traverses khors, some of them 
covered with drifted sands, and finally over rocky ground to the wells of Murat in the 
erystalline mountain known as Jebel Raft, the plateau at this part having an elevation 
of about 517 métres above the sea. ‘This mountain, as originally pointed out by 
Linant de Bellefonds, is the site of ancient gold-workings. It is cut up by many 
ravines, the drainage from which passes through the valley in which the wells are found, 
and empties itself into the Wadi Kabkaba, which, in its turn, joins the Wadi Allaki. 
In all of these ravines water is found after rain, and, in the Wadi Suffur, the last- 
mentioned traveller, in the month of September, met with beautiful green mimosas in 
flower. Like other mountains to the east, Jebel Raft has not a few natural reservoirs of 
water in its ravines. There isalso a valley distinguished by the presence of some dhum- 
palms, distinct from the true dhum-palm of Upper Nubia, and seemingly characteristic 
of other depressions of the Nubian desert; and associated with these in the bottom of 
the valley there are a few acacias. It is thus evident that whenever there are groups 
of mountains of crystalline rocks in this desert, their ravines and wadis always contain 
a certain amount of vegetation dependent on the rare rainfall, the water of which 
percolates down into the beds of the valleys and into the wells, and fills the natural 
reservoirs, which are evidently as numerous in the crystalline mountains of this part of 
the desert as they are in those to the east. ‘The mountains, however, being lower, and 
far removed from the influence of the Red Sea, the rainfall is much less. Major 
Lyons’ mentions that from November 1891 to August 1896 only a few showers fell, 
but that on these two dates the amount of rain was sufficient to fill the wells in the 
neighbourhood of Murat. Beyond these wells, wadis and rocky ridges are crossed, 
and that remarkable expanse of desert sand, the Bahr-Hud-Ab, strewn with spheroidal 
stones of all sizes up to the size of shot, is traversed, after which the sandy Bahr 
Belaama, with its isolated conical rocks about 76 métres in height, and its old well 
in the bed of the valley, conducts the traveller to a gap in the escarpment of the 
high plateau of Nubian sandstone, through which a gradual descent is made to 
Korosko. A few acacias are passed on the way, but vegetation throughout is 
extremely scant. 

Linant de Bellefonds’s 2 detailed account of the region intervening between Assuan 
and the Elba group of mountains is of extreme interest. Some distance beyond 


1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. lili. 1897, p. 360. 
? L’Etbaye, 1828. 


XXIV INTRODUCTION. 


Assuan, he traversed a country studded over with small, rounded, detached mountains 
of sandstone and granite, the highest of which rises to about 360 métres above the 
plain. Here the temperature in the early morning, in the beginning of February, 
was not more than 5° Centigrade. The route beyond this lay through the valley of 
Esserba, full of brush-wood and many acacia-trees, all of which were green owing 
to a recent fall of rain. In this valley there was a Bisharin encampment of eight 
mat huts. The track continued through rocky ravines with natural reservoirs of water, 
and everywhere were Bisharin and Ababdeh. The ravine through which his route 
lay became wide and filled with plants and trees. Here Linant de Bellefonds says :-— 
“Un boue sauvage, bel animal aux longues soies s’enfuit 4 notre approche, nous lui 
donnames la chasse inutilement: car il gagna les montagnes avant que nos dromadaires 
pussent l’atteindre et il se trouva a Vabri de nos balles.” The description of this 
animal suggests the wild sheep, Ovis tragelaphus, rather than an ibex, which the 
author calls the “ Capricorne” }. 

Beyond this was the Wadi Gehetre, cut through rather high mountains of crystalline 
rocks, where he encamped, as it contained a natural reservoir, which at the time 
of his visit, 4th February, had been replenished by recent rains. It also yielded 
plenty of fodder for the camels, and wood to act as fuel to warm the travellers; but 
the cold at night was so great that the caravan, instead of starting in the morning, 
had to wait until the benumbed camels had been thawed by the sun. The route 
continued through a similar country, and passed the old gold-workings of El Seiga, 
in a valley of that name defined by isolated mountains. Further on, it lay through 
a frightful undulating desert plain, covered with sandstone and the calcareous detritus 
of the surrounding hills, granite rocks standing up through the sand. Crossing the 
mountains it reached the valley Séguel, filled, here and there, with small very green 
mimosa-trees, and then another valley, where good water was found by digging in the 
sand. ‘Traversing small hills and winding amid little valleys, with a sparse vegetation. 
the route arrived at the Wadi Allaki. This great wadi, where Linant de Bellefonds 
met with it, was a fine wide valley containing plants and shrubs, relatively abundant 
as far as the mountains which were some distance off. Game, consisting of red 
partridges, gazelles, and hares, was abundant. As this valley is traced eastwards it 
becomes narrowed, and at its head is found the site of the ancient gold-mines of 
Derehib, with the remains of a ruined town and two castles. Linant de Bellefonds 
visited a number of the wadis that open into Wadi Allaki in the upper part of 
its course. One of them, confined between small, almost perpendicular, mountains, 
contained water in its bed, and a variety of trees, some of them very large. At 


’ A herd, according to native report, of 13 sheep (Ovis tragelaphus) frequented Semna, 64 kiloms. south 
of Wadi Halfa, in the summer of 1890. They were supposed to have come from Jebel el Hiss, 96 kiloms. 
S.W. of the Elba mountains, and to have been driven to the Nile by the drought that prevailed, from 
1886-91, in the Atbai district. (Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 85.) 


REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT INTROD, PLATE III 


Jebel Shellal, Elba Mountains. 


Looking towards the Red Sea from Jebel Shellal, Elba Mountains. 


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PHYSICAL FEATURES. XXV 


the bend of the valley there is the conical mountain formed entirely of great 
blocks of red granite like that found at Assuan, and attaining to an elevation of 
nearly 400 metres above the valley. He ascended it with great difficulty, and found 
the view of the desert magnificent. ‘The other valleys, such as Daffetti, seemed to 
have been similar in character. This country was peopled with gazelles and ostriches !. 
Having cleared the defiles of Wadi Daffetti, Linant de Bellefonds visited the mountain 
and valley of Beint el Fegue, the latter filled with clumps of reeds, and at intervals 
with little stunted trees, dry and black, the abundant dew that fell not being sufficient 
to counteract the effects of the burning sun. NHereabouts many wild asses occurred, 
extremely shy, and scenting man from a great distance. ‘They were trapped by the 
Bisharin Arabs, who used their flesh as food. 

As Mount Elba, 1243 métres high, was approached the aspect of the country com- 
pletely changed: the soil became covered with very green mimosa-trees and luxuriant 
plants, and birds sang in nests of verdure—a grateful sound to Linant de Bellefonds, 
as since his departure from Assuan, where birds are nearly mute, he had only heard 
the croaking of ravens. He camped under a superb mimosa, where the borders of the 
ravine were covered with herbage, and many climbing plants hung down from the trees. 
He found Jebel Elba to be composed of granite and porphyry, and to be cut up into 
profound ravines overhung by perpendicular rocks of great height. 

The height of the five principal peaks varies from 1220 métres to close on 1600 
métres above the level of the sea; but, a short way to the south, Jebel Soturba rises 
to 2100 métres in height. 

At the base of Mount Elba Linant de Bellefonds met with a valley so full of shrubs 
that he had to dismount from his camel. 

The mist on the mountains and on the surrounding country is sometimes very dense 
and does not clear off until noon. 

Like the generality of the mountains along the coast, Jebel Elba and the 
neighbouring mountains are separated from the sea by a maritime plain (Introd. 
Pl. III.), the grazing-ground of the flocks of the Arabs. This plain at Elba, as at 
Tokar to the south, and indeed throughout its extent, wherever it is of any breadth, 
is occasionally enshrouded in clouds of fine sand and dust raised by the strong south- 
east wind, so much so that it is difficult for man and beast to breathe. 

On the level country around the mountains the Bisharin find gazelles, wild asses, 
and ostriches, in the valleys hares, and ibex on the mountains—the animals of prey 
being Hyena striata, the ‘common wolf” (? Canis anthus), the jackal (C. variegatus), 
the small fox (C. famelicus), the “large wolf” called by the Bisharin Ose/o, the name 
by which it is known to the Gallas. 

Linant de Bellefonds returned to Dardwi by a north-westerly route, along which the 


1 Floyer (‘Etude sur le Nord-Etbai,’ 1893) mentions that one of the wadis of this region is called 
““ Na’am”’—that is, the Wadi of Ostriches. 


XXVi INTRODUCTION. 


country traversed had much the same character as the region between Assuan and 
Allaki. 

Schweinfurth’, in his enterprising voyage made thirty-four years ago along the 
coast of the Red Sea from Kosseir to Suakin and back in a native boat, visited the Elba 
group of mountains in the month of April and again in July. On the latter occasion 
he attempted to reach the summit of Jebel Soturba, but was turned back by the 
Bisharin. The way to the mountains from the sea lay over undulating ground, 
alternately between sandy watercourses full of shrubs and ridges of basalt, porphyry, 
and granite. In places he had to tear his way through thorny bushes and sharp- 
edged boulders. Further on, when he had reached a low chain of hills (about 30 
métres high), the sandy plain began to rise considerably, and after marching for an 
hour and a half he encamped on soft sand and grass. Here heavy dew fell at night. 
Beyond, he crossed a sandy plain bordered by hills and rich vegetation, but the plants 
were now half dried up, and, at the beginning of Castle Hill, heights of red granite about 
76 metres in altitude were covered to their summits with dried shrubs, and a valley 
further on was rich in “SSammors trees.” This is only one of a group of mountains 
each of which is more or less separated from those around it. ‘The double-peaked 
Jebel Soturba is the mountain that gives its name to the group among the Bisharin. 
The neighbouring Jebel Alafa is cut into by three great defiles, in which water 
collects in a number of natural basins among the granite rocks. Schweinfurth, 
who ascended one of the lesser peaks, states that the flora of this mountain group 
has exactly the same characters as the flora of Abyssinia, and that the plants on 
the summit of the peak he climbed were quite distinct from those below. From 
the highest peak he saw the plain beneath studded with hundreds of thousands of 
little spots, all acacia-trees. The flora was wonderfully rich considering the rarity 
of rain. 

The late Mr. Theodore Bent? also visited the Elba mountains (Introd. Pls. III. & IV.) 
from the sea, and he describes Jebel Shellal (close on 1220 métres in height) as 
the most fertile of the group; and in the month of February, immediately after a 
copious rainfall, he found its slopes beautifully covered with verdure, and a stream 
issuing from a deep ravine (Introd. Pl. IV.) that ran right into the heart of the 
mountain, promising an ample supply to the nomads for some months. He concluded, 
however, that the country around Elba, except after heavy rain, is little better than 
a desert. 

To the north of the First Cataract the granitic area on the east bank of the Nile 
becomes narrowed, but the mountainous character is retained throughout the area to 
which the term Arabian desert is restricted. This entire region, which rises in a 
gentle slope from the river to the main range, is cut up on the west of the crystalline 


‘ Zeitschr. Ges. Erdk., Berlin, 1865, p. 181 et seq. 
* Geogr. Journal, Oct. 1896. 


REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. INTROD. PLATE IV 


Sifplyon 


Source of the Shellal Stream, Elba Mountains. 


Jebel Shindui from Jebel Shellal Elba Mountains. 


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PHYSICAL FEATURES. XXVll 


mountains by ravines, deep valleys, and khors, having generally a direction from east to 
west, enclosing lofty plateaus and terraces ranging from 100 to 700 métres in height, 
and debouching into the Nile. On the east of the axial range other ravines, valleys, 
and khors trend down to the tehama and discharge their intermittent floods into the 
Red Sea, but, in places, the mountain-ridge runs down close to the shore in bold 
escarpments. 

A prominent feature of the Arabian desert is the great depression that crosses it 
between Kenneh and Kosseir, a highway between the Red Sea and the Nile notable 
from time immemorial, which has been frequently described. Klunzinger has recorded 
the following reptiles from in and around Kosseir, viz.:—Gymmnodactylus scaber, Ptyo- 
dactylus hasselqustu, Hemidactylus flaviviridis, H. turcicus, Agama sinaita, Uromastix 
eqyptius, Acanthodactylus boskianus, Eremias guttulata, E. rubropunctata, Chalcides 
ocellatus, Zamenis florulentus, Z. ravergieri, and Lytorhynchus diadema. 

The broad Wadi Arabah, dominated by lofty cliffs, opens into the Gulf of Suez 
near Ras Zafarana, and is memorable as the site of Prof. Schweinfurth’s discovery of 
palwozoic rocks’. All of the ravines, wadis, and khors on the western slopes of the 
crystalline ridge of mountains in the Arabian desert north of Ras Benas at Berenice 
preserve much the same general characters as those delineated by Linant de Beilefonds 
as distinctive of the lines of drainage of the Elba group; but this great area has yet to 
be systematically explored, as it has only been touched at points by a few travellers. 
Schweinfurth” has described his visit to the imposing five-peaked Jebel Farageh, about 
1515 métres in height, the Pentadactyle of the ancients, and at the base of which is a 
plain covered with an encrustation of salt derived from the sea in storms. ‘The bare 
summits of this mountain present a remarkable contrast to those of the Elba group, 
which are clothed to their summits with grass and shrubs. The entire mountain is 
more or less covered with gigantic blocks of granite, often as large as houses, or with 
great sheets of granite as smooth as tables, while square jagged masses form dark 
erottoes that serve as hiding-places for gazelles. There are also deep detiles. 
Schweinfurth, who attempted, in the month of April, to ascend the highest peak, had 
to abandon his intention about halfway up, owing to the physical obstacles to be 
surmounted and to the intense heat. He was, however, rewarded by many interesting 
plants. This mountain is the southern limit of the distribution of Acacia tortilis. 
The Tropic of Cancer, with the desert which it crosses, not only separates Farageh 
geographically from Elba, but also forms the boundary between a large number of 
plants. The zoology of this area is quite unknown, but when it has been investigated 
it will be interesting to ascertain whether any of the animal species have corresponding 
limits set to their distribution ; however, what is known of the forms found along the 
valley of the Nile does not favour such a supposition. 


' Bull. Instit. Egyptien, no. 6 (1885). 
* Zeitsch. Ges. Erdk. 1865, p. 308. 


XxXVlll INTRODUCTION. 


The Wadi Kenneh to the north, which conducts nearly all the western drainage of 
the ridge between Jebel Gharib and Jebel Kittar to the Nile, leads into a very 
interesting mountain-region, which may be taken as fairly representative of the Arabian 
desert. This wadi comes down in a southerly direction, thickly studded in places with 
acacias, and with other desert plants and shrubs, under which the burrows of many 
rodents occur. Insects are frequent, and also small birds}. 

As the Wadi Kenneh enters the hills plants become more numerous, and further up 
it is joimed by one of its affluents, the Wadi Kittar, which comes down from a 
mountain of the same name. In some parts of its course the Jatter waddi is rich in 
mimosa-trees from 6 to 9 métres in height. One of its upper reaches is choked, in 
places, with great granite blocks, while higher up its bed is filled with gravel and 
scattered boulders; and here, by scraping aside the gravel, water may be obtained in 
sufficient quantity to satisfy a few camels and men. Wilkinson 2, who was the first to 
describe this wadi, mentioned the existence at the head of one of its ravines of a 
precipitous rock overgrown with hanging water-weeds, down which water dripped 
slowly. Below were palm-trees and rushes, and a basin which afforded a plentiful 
supply of excellent water on digging a hole in the gravel with which it was filled. 
Doubtless many other such natural reservoirs of rain-water are present in this desert, 
and are well known to the nomadic Arabs, who, however, never reveal their presence 
unless driven to do so, as they are entirely dependent on them for their supplies of 
water. 

In the Wadi Medisa, not far from the Wadi Kittar, there are other large basins 
of water, and to the north, in a small lateral valley near the Wadi Tarfaeh, and at 
an elevation of about 800 metres, there is a large very characteristic natural reservoir 
of which Schweinfurth has given an account and a drawing in his interesting com- 
munication on this part of the Arabian desert, entitled “La Terra Incognita dell’ 
Egitto propriamenta detto” °. 

Animal life is always to be found in the neighbourhood of these reservoirs; and 
Wilkinson, who knew this desert well, says that, so far from its being destitute 
of any trace of life, he had the pleasure of seeing gazelles and ibex browsing under 
Acacia Seyal. My. KB. A. Floyer4, when in the vicinity of the reservoir in Wadi 
Kittar, found Hyrax syriacus and Capra sinaitica to be common; and mentions that he 
saw three donkeys, one of them being young, leaping from rock to rock with the agility 
of goats. He considered them to be domestic animals; but James Burton®, in the 
beginning of the second decade of this century, had observed the wild ass at Ayd, 
near Jebel Kenneh, not far to the south of the spot where Mr. Floyer saw his supposed 
domestic animals, and had called attention to the fact that the Arabs of this part of 


* Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soe. ix. 1887, p. 670. * Journ. R. Geogr. Soe. ii. 1832, p. 49. 
’ Giornale l’Esploratore, anno ui. fase. 4°, 5°, e 6°; and as a separate publication, Milano, 1878. 
* Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc. ix. 1887, p. 671. 5 Add. MS. Brit. Mus. 25,666. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. Xx1X 


the Arabian desert let their female donkeys loose to be served by wild males. Gazelles 
wander over the mountains as well as over the plains, and on the latter and in the 
wadis hares and other rodents are not uncommon. Ovis tragelaphus is associated with 
the foregoing animals, as Professor Schweinfurth in 18781 pointed out that it was 
found in the neighbouring Wadi Shietun, which opens on the Nile, below Akhmin. 
Dr. Sclater? has quite recently recorded its presence in the Wadi Medisa, on the 
authority of Mr. E. N. Buxton®. //yrax syriacus occurs in one of the upper reaches 
of the Wadi Shietun in such great numbers that Professor Schweinfurth has named it 
the “ Valle di Hyrax.” Natural reservoirs of water are also present in the upper part 
of this valley. 

Wilkinson 4, who long ago described the general characters of the mountain masses 
of Jebel Kittar and Jebel Dukhan, ascended Jebel Gharib, a very bold and striking 
mountain to the north, overlooking the Gulf of Suez. It attains to an altitude of 
1646 métres above the level of the sea, and near its summit he stalked gazelles that 
had doubtless wandered up the mountain in search of the stray plants which he 
observed growing every here and there under the shade of projecting stones in the 
ravines. The following reptiles have been obtained from the plain below Jebel 
Gharib, viz.:—Stenodactylus elegans, Hemidactylus turcicus, Eremias rubropunctata, 
Psammophis schokari, Cerastes vipera, and C. cornutus. 

The rarity of rain over the great mass of the Arabian desert, more especially to the 
west of the crystalline range of mountains, may be held as entitling that portion of it 
to be designated a desert, but at the same time it should be borne in mind that it is 
a region devoid of rain-gauges. When rain does visit it, it generally falls as a steady 
downpour, particularly severe in the mountainous portion; but in the wadis to the west 
the floods of water from off the plateaus and terraces rush into them from every side, 
leaping in waterfalls over their steep banks, scouring out their beds, rushing as cataracts 
along the rocky channels with irresistible force, carrying before them the uprooted shrubs 
or burying those that withstand them under heaps of rubble and sand, a mighty 
disintegrating power with a capacity for work that can only be justly estimated when 
it is witnessed in action, or by its effects when viewed immediately after action has 
ceased. As the waddfs are the lines along which animal life is distributed, these 
floods prove destructive more especially to rodent and to reptilian life. 

These storms sometimes assume the character of violent hail-storms: one such was 
experienced by Professor Schweinfurth® on the 12th April, 1864, just outside the 
tropics, at Wadi Lekhuma, on the coast of the Red Sea, to the north of Berenice, the 
hail-stones being as large as cherries or pigeons’ eggs; and Professor Schweinfurth 
states that Dr. Dtimichen, who was staying that day at Thebes, experienced there 

1 Terra Incog. &e. * Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 84. 


* See also Buxton, ‘ Short Stalks,’ 1898, p. 106. * Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. ii. 1832, pp. 28-60. 
° Zeitsch. Ges. Erdk., Berlin, 1865. 


e2 


YOK INTRODUCTION. 


three days of almost incessant rain. In winter, the showers also occasionally fall as 
snow on the higher mountains, such as Jebel Kittar, covering them with a mantle of 
white and their sides with a network of streams !. 

The variations of temperature to which the Arabian desert is subject are very con- 
siderable, being as much as 30° to 35° Centigrade in the 24 hours, whilst, on the 
heights, frost is not unfrequent during winter. The cold of the winter months exercises 
a powerful influence on animal life, rendering many species, more especially reptiles, 
almost semidormant while it lasts. It is only when the sun fully exercises its sway in 
the months of summer that reptiles may be said to become possessed of their full vital 
activity. This is also true, but to a more limited extent, of the smaller mammals. 
Some of the latter which I have kept in confinement, although they were given every 
protection in the way of a covering during night, were found in the early morning so 
utterly benumbed with cold as to give rise to the impression that they wete in a fatal 
collapse, but when the sun rose, and they were exposed to its heating influence, their 
powers of life returned to them. I have observed this both in the Insectivora and 
Rodentia, and, as already stated, even camels, in the early morning, are occasionally so 
torpid from the benumbing action of the cold, that the hour of departure of a march 
has to be postponed until they become revivified by the sun. 


The region on the left bank of the Nile known as the Libyan desert has now briefly 
to be considered, so as to bring out the conditions under which animal life subsists 
upon its surface. Its physical features differ considerably from those of the Eastern 
desert, as it is not traversed by a mountain-ridge, and is consequently devoid of any of 
the great altitudes met with to the east of the Nile. It is also not cut up into deep 
transverse valleys and ravines, but forms a great tableland with a gradual, but in 
places irregular, slope from south to north, and attaining on an average to an altitude 
of from 250 to 500 metres, although rising in parts to 500 métres above the sea. 
Depressions of varying size and depth are met with over its surface, some of them 
not more than a few miles in length and breadth, while others are hundreds of 
square kilometres in extent. They are all more or less enclosed by bold escarpments 
resembling those which define the plateau where it skirts the Nile, and in some of them 
the descent to the oasis is made through labyrinths of fantastic rocks. The floors of 
these depressions, the sites of the famed oases, lie at various heights, but there is no 
regularly graduated slope from south to north, as the floor of the oasis at Farafreh 
(76 metres above the sea) lies at a lower level than that of Dakhel (100 métres), 
whereas that of Baharieh (114 métres) is somewhat more elevated than that of Dakhel, 
that is, there is a distinct fall from Dakhel to Farafreh, and a marked rise from the 
latter to Baharieh, beyond which the land sinks, in the Aradj and Siwah district, to 
70 métres and 30 métres below the level of the Mediterranean. ‘The famous Birket-el- 


* Floyer, Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1887, p. 678. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. XXX1 


Qurun, Wadi Raidn, and Wadi Natrun are further examples of depressions. The 
first, which occupies the deepest part of the Fayum, had its surface-waters, in 1892, 
45°30 métres below the level of the sea, but the bed of the lake lies from 5 to 17 
metres lower. ‘Lhe second is a bare desert, 40 metres below sea-level, whilst the third 
is slightly under the level of the Nile at Teraneh. ‘The springs which give rise to the 
fertility of the more southerly oases derive their supplies of water, according to Zittel, 
from a water-bearing bed fed by the water that finds its way down to it from 
Dar-Fur, a region which has a heavy rainfall. Numerous wells, some of them of great 
depth, once existed, more or less, throughout all the oases, but many have been choked 
up with sand. The Libyan plateau is studded over, in places, with flat-topped or 
conical hills, 60 to 80 métres high, the remains of a tableland which formerly had its 
general surface at the level of their summits, and now and again a low isolated 
mountain rises from it. This tableland of limestone is covered with sand that either 
accumulates in the form of drifts in the hollows, or covers large areas with shifting 
sand-dunes 3 to 5 métres in height, directed from south-east to north-west by the 
polar winds. ‘his sand, which is so characteristic a feature of this desert and more 
especially of the great area to the west of the oases, and designated by the members of 
the Rohlfs Expedition “ Das grosse libysche Sandmeer,” is derived from the denudation 
of the Nubian sandstones, chiefly brought about by the action of the wind aided by the 
extremes of heat and cold, and by rare falls of rain. ‘he sand-charged wind has 
played a powerful ré/e in modifying the Libyan desert, but the nature and extent of 
its action are questions to be decided by physical geographers. However, from 
a biological standpoint there can be no doubt that it materially influences the 
distribution of plants, and thus also affects animal life. The vast plains swept by 
the winds are practically devoid of plants and animals, and this is markedly the case 
on the plateau of Nubian sandstone, and amid the huge sand-billows 100 to 150 metres 
in height, and the intervening wavelets of the great sand-sea which defied the passage 
of the Rohlfs Expedition. 

The surface of the desert at midday is, as a rule, much hotter than the air which 
becomes heated by the amount of caloric reflected from off the soil, be it sand, stones, 
or rocks. ‘The most uniform temperature is met with in such localities as the 
“Sandheim,” to the north-west of Dakhel, in the uninterrupted surface of the great 
sand-sea. Ifa thermometer be sunk into the sand for a depth of from | to 2 centi- 
métres the temperature of the surface can be ascertained and compared with that of the 
air; and from the observations made by Jordan in the Dakhel oasis, in the Regenfeld, 
and in the “Sandheim” it appears that the temperature of the surface sand is, on 
an average, from 1°3 to 1°8 Cent. higher than that of the atmosphere. In the 
latter locality, on the 12th February, the temperature of the air at 8 o'clock A.M. rose 
above that of the sand, but by noon the latter had become heated 2°-4 Cent. in excess 
of the air. On the stony desert the variations of temperature during the day are 


Xxxii INTRODUCTION. 


sometimes enormous. In the early morning it may be —4° Cent., and in the afternoon 
as much as 57° Cent. Associated with these extremes there is an ever-recurring 
expansion and contraction of the materials composing the surface of the desert, which 
in time leads to the complete shattering of pebbles, stones, and rocks. The character 
of the climate is brought out in the following brief summaries of the itineraries of 
Cailliaud and other travellers }. 

Although much can be learned regarding the physical features of the Libyan desert 
from the writirgs of Browne’ and those of succeeding travellers, the names of 
Cailliaud, Rohlfs, Zittel, and Jordan stand out promineutly as the most eminent 
authorities on that remarkable and deeply interesting area of North-eastern Africa. 

The first? of these distinguished travellers, favoured by the goodwill of Mohammed 
Ahi, visited, in 1819-20, five of the oases of the Libyan desert, besides the oasis of 
Siwah, where Boutin had lost his life a few years previously. Rohlfs’s Expedition 4, 
of which Zittel®, Jordan ®, Acherson’, and Remelé® were members, proceeded to 
explore the Libyan desert under the auspices of the Khedive Ismail Pasha. leaving 
Assiut in the latter half of December 1873, and returning to the Nile valley in the end 
of March of the following year. 

Browne, on his visit to the oasis of Siwah °, Feb. 1792, followed the coast from 
Alexandria, only losing sight of the Mediterranean when he struck southwards to reach 
his destination. The route was generally smooth and sandy, but many spots were 
marked with verdure that relieved the general aspect of barrenness. In the places 
where he encamped he usually met with a species of jerboa 1°, a land-tortoise (Testudo 
leithii), some lizards and serpents, but not in great numbers. Snails, however, were very 
abundant, attached to the thorny shrubs on which the camels fed. A few hares 1 were 
observed in the neighbourhood of the springs, and the tracks of antelopes (gazelles) 


Phys. Geogr. u. Meteorologie der libysche Wiiste. Rohlfs’schen Exped. 1873-74. 1876, pp: 127-128. 
Browne (W. G.), Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, 1792-98. 
Cailliand (M. F.), Voyage 4 Méroé et au Fleuve Blanc, 1819-22. 4 vols. 1826. 
Rohlfs (Gerard), Drei Monate in der libyschen Wiiste. 1875. 
” Zittel (Karl A.), Beitraege zur Geologie u. Palaeontologie der libyschen Wiiste, &c. 1883. 
° Jordan (W.), op. cit. 
Acherson (P.), Botanische Zeitung von Dr. Von Barry u. Kraus, 1874, nos. 38-40. 
Remelé, Photographische Album Rohlfs’schen Hxped. 1876. 
Since W. G. Browne’s day, Siwah has been visited by many Europeans, e. g. Fv. Hlornemann, 1798 ; 
Boutin, 18 —?; Belzoni, 1819; Cailliand, 1819-20; Drovetti, 1820; Minutoli, 1820-21, accompanied by 
Hemprich and Ehrenberg as naturalists, Scholz as orientalist, Gruoe as astronomer; J. R. Pacho, 1826 ; 
Bayle St. John, 1849; Hamilton, 1856; Rohlfs in 1869, and again in 187+ accompanied by Zittel, Jordan, 
&e.; Robecchi-Bricchetti, 1886; Weld Blundell, 1894; W. Jennings-Bramly, 1896; Silva White, 1898. 

* Ehrenberg, on his journey from Siwah to Alexandria, discovered the form known as Scirtomys tetra- 
dactylus (Licht.). 


we 


"’ Ehrenberg recognized the coast hare that he met with on the above route to be Lepus aegyptius. The 
hedgehog, which also oceurs, he regarded as distinct from Erinaceus auritus. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. XXXxlll 


(?Gazella leptoceros, F. Cuv.) and even those of ostriches were frequently seen. The 
correctness of this observation regarding the presence of the ostrich in the northern 
portion of the Libyan desert in the end of last century is verified by Geoffroy 
St.-Hilaire’, who says, “elle est commune dans les montagnes situées au sud-ouest 
d’Alexandrie”?. At the same period Ovis tragelaphus existed on the hills to the east 
of Cairo. 

Marsa Matru, which lies on the coast to the west of where Browne turned southwards 
to the oasis of Siwah, has as yet yielded only four species of Reptiles, viz. Tarentola 
mauritanica, Eumeces schneideri, Chameleon vulgaris, and Zamenis rogersi ; but, when 
properly investigated, the fauna of the coast-line from Alexandria to Marsa Matru will 
be found to be, in all likelihood, as far as Reptiles are concerned, a repetition of the 
littoral fauna of the Delta. 

After a series of marches along the coast, extending to 75 hours, during which 
Browne remarks that hardly a day passed without his being incommoded by showers 
and by cold winds from the north-east or north-west, he came to a copious well, 
where he watered his camels and proceeded south-west towards Siwah, and, in about 
three days, reached the oasis of Garah with its fresh water and date-palms, which, 
a few years later, was visited by Hornemann. ‘The country beyond was a perfect desert, 
consisting of ‘‘ mountains of sand and barren rock,” succeeded by an extensive sandy 
plain followed by other low hills and rocks. Between the oasis of Garah and Siwah 
the soil was completely encrusted with salt °. 

The oasis of Siwah, which has frequently been described, and quite recently by 
Robecchi-Bricchetti‘, lies in a depression 25 to 30 métres below the level of the 
Mediterranean, surrounded more or less by fantastically shaped cliffs, whilst a number 
of isolated rocky masses stand up from its centre. ‘The dwellings of the inhabitants are 
built on these eminences, and are so constructed that they assume the appearance of 
feudal fortresses. ‘These heights once formed part of the surrounding plateau, to the 
level of which their summits nearly reach. Numerous lakelets and many running fresh- 
water, mostly thermal, streams are seen on the floor of the oasis, some containing fish, 
possibly among them the two species, Cyprinodon dispar and C. calcaritanus; other 
waters are generally brackish, while some springs contain sulphur. Besides groves 
of date-palms—apricots, figs, olives, peaches, plums, pomegranates, vines, &c. are 
cultivated, also some cereals. Although Browne complained of the cold of the journey 
along the coast, he suffered much from the heat of the oasis. As it lies, however, within 
the influence of the climatic conditions of the Mediterranean, rain is not uncommon in 


the months of January and February. 


‘ Mem. sur I’Egypte, i. (1799-1800), p. 79. 

* Also once present in Tunisia: Johnston, P.Z.S. 1898, p. 353. 

* The salt of Siwah was formerly reserved for certain religious ceremonies and was exported to Persia to 
be used by the Royal household. 4 All Oasi di Giove Ammone, 1890. 


XXX1V INTRODUCTION. 


Cailliaud, in his account of his journey from the Fayum to the oasis of Siwah in 
November and December 1819, describes how in that direction he crossed immense 
plains where the horizon was lost in sand and without a vestige of vegetation, and how 
he passed among dunes of moving sand which, in places, so obstructed progress that 
trenches had to be cut to permit the camels to pass. He spent two days in the 
depression of the Wadi Raidn, and he describes it as bordered, in his day, with 
shrubs, acacias, and some palms, so luxuriant in their growth that they conceale 
him from the Arabs, and permitted him to take his observations unseen ; but this valley 
is now quite destitute of vegetation!. Beyond Wadi Raian, Cailliaud left the route 
that had been followed so far by Belzoni? in May 1819, and took a course to the west 
and some degrees north. He first encountered numerous sand-dunes and springs of 
brackish water with some herbage, and further on passed over a desert tract, covered 
with calcareous isolated rocks, and with a chain of hills to the north, the horizon 
to the south being lost in sands—the cold north wind being so intense that he was 
glad to avail himself of the shelter of some low hills. The next tract of desert 
passed over was covered with rounded pebbles, and in the hollows beyond there 
was a little herbage, then again in places great stretches of sand, with extensive 
dunes running south to north, due to the prevalence of the polar winds. In the last 
days of November, amid this sea of sand, he met with a little rain lasting about 
five minutes. Some marches beyond, over a similar desert, he sighted the eastern 
continuation of the escarpment of the plateau of Cyrenaica, which, viewed from the 
south, appears as a chain of mountains extending from the east, away in the distance, 
towards the west. He visited the basin of Ain Ouara, covered with reeds, shrubs, 
herbage, and palms, its centre occupied by a lake of saltish water full of reeds highly 
prized for mat-making. Several wells of sweet water exist here at the base of 
a sand-hill covered with shrubs. The cold of the morning at 7 A.M. was as low as 
6°°8 Cent., but at 3 P.M. it was as much as 28° Cent. An immense plain borders the 
foregoing escarpment, occasionally broken by sand-dunes, and while crossing the plain 
some drops of rain fell one day in the afternoon. As the oasis of El Garah was 
approached a salt plain grooved like a ploughed field was crossed, and afterwards he 
descried in front of him a fertile valley with palms, acacias, and many herbs. Following 
this, an elevated desert covered with irregularities was passed over, to a high plateau 
from which a rapid slope descended to a plain studded with hillocks, but having 
herbage and shrubs, and, continuing onwards, the palm-groves of the oasis of Siwah 
became visible. He remained at Siwah from the 10th to the 25th December, and then 
retraced his steps in an easterly direction to the oasis of Baharich. ‘The eastern 
portion of the Siwah district, across which Cailliaud and other travellers have passed, 


* Brown (R. H.), The Fayum and Lake Morris, 1892, p. 5. 
> Narr.tive cf th» Ope atio:.s and Pecent Discoveries in Heypt and Nubia, 1820. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. XXXV 


has been recently traversed by Mr. Jennings-Bramly!, who characterizes it as a ‘“ low- 
land” over 4 kilométres in breadth, covered with halfa-grass. Beyond this there is a 
ereat salt plain ‘broken up into small pools of clear water glistening on beds of 
crystallized salt as white as snow.’ 

The following Reptiles have been recorded from the oasis of Siwah, viz. :—Chalcides 
ocellatus, Zamenis diadema, Cerastes vipera, and Echis carinatus. Doubtless many 
more species occur, and it is probable that the majority of the more essentially 
desert forms having a wide range to westward over Northern Africa will be found 
in the different oases. 

Leaving the depression of Siwah, the route rises to the summit of the plateau, here 
only 25 métres above the sea. Cailliaud describes the desert beyond as very peculiar, 
consisting as it does of a multitude of small projecting rocks which hide everything 
from view. Further on small hillocks are passed, and then the oasis known as El 
Aradj is seen lying before the traveller, in a depression 70 métres below the level of 
the Mediterranean, enclosed almost continuously by the bold lmestone escarpment cf 
the plateau, excavated by tombs attesting the former presence of permanent inhabitants ; 
the cliffs surrounding this oasis are described by Rohlfs as perpendicular rocks 
91 métres high, of snow-white nummulitic lhmestone presenting fantastic forms. ‘The 
floor of the oasis in Cailliaud’s time was rich with the foliage of the date-palm, among 
which he observed some dhum-palms; but in Rohlfs’s day the latter had seemingly 
disappeared, and recent travellers have remarked that its palm-groves generally are 
being buried under the advancing sand-drifts. The brackish springs and the vegetation 
they nourish are the breeding-ground of such multitudes of mosquitoes, that the place 
is uninhabitable. It is, however, now and again visited by the Arabs because the dates 
that remain are excellent in quality. Gazelles (Gazella leptoceros) abound around 
this oasis, and associated with them is the large jackal (Canis anthus), the so-called 
wolf of Egypt. Cailliaud mentions another ruminant under the name of ‘ daqguar ou 
beuf sauvage.” He describes it as being as large as a calf, and states that the sands 
were marked by its footprints. It may possibly have been Bubalis boselaphus. 

The desert immediately to the east of Aradj, at an elevation of about 35 métres 
above the sea, is strewn over with: hillocks, and on its barren surface Cailliaud, on the 
26th December, experienced two degrees of frost at 7 A.M., while at midday the 
thermometer had risen only to 19° Cent. ‘The route continues to traverse similar 
ground until it reaches the margin of the depression of Uttiah, 50 métres below the 
Mediterranean, with its date-palms, and in which Mr. Jennings-Bramly observed a few 
night-herons. Leaving this small oasis the route leads on over much the same kind 
of desert as that between Aradj and Uttiah to the edge of the hollow in which the salt 
lake of Sittrah lies, 25 métres below the Mediterranean, or even still lower; it is 


' Geogr. Journ., Dec. 1897, p. 6C6. 


7 


XXXVL INTRODUCTION. 


reached in three marches from the confines of Siwah. This salt lake was first made 
known to Europeans by Cailliaud, who was also the first to traverse the route which 
has since been explored by Pacho, Rohlfs, Zittel, Jordan, and other travellers. Rohlfs 
says that the Sittrah lake is defined on the north by a picturesque rocky chain and on 
the west and east by reeds; and Cailliaud mentions that on the south side, in his day, 
there was a great bank of sand with a few date-palms. When Rohlfs visited Sittrah 
the surface of the lake was covered with ducks and white ibis. About half a mile from 
its southern end, where the route passes, there is a fresh-water spring at the foot of a 
date-palm, and some marshy land covered with reeds; but here, as in Aradj, mosquitoes 
are so numerous that neither man nor beast can endure their attacks, and consequently 
a camping-ground has to be sought for further to the east, where there is a little herbage 
for camels. Cailliaud continued on to the oasis of Baharieh; and Jordan, when he 
separated from Rohlfs at the Sittrah lake, in 1874, followed a route slightly to the north 
of that taken by the French traveller. 

As Rohlfs accompanied by Zittel proceeded to the oasis of Farafreh, a knowledge 
of this part of the Libyan desert is gained by their experiences. Along this route 
there are great collections of sand, not, however, in the form of continuous dunes, but 
as confused masses very difficult to cross, and giving rise to great fatigue. In 
proceeding from the Sittrah lake the route traverses an eastern rounded arm of the 
sand-sea, 47 métres above sea-level, and then passes over a short western prolongation 
of the plateau 104 métres high, to descend again to another arm of the sand-sea only 
10 métres above the Mediterranean, after which the plateau is once more reached, 
rising ina gentle slope to the south-east, until at the summit of the escarpment of 
Farafreh (Introd. Pl. V.) it is elevated 242 métres above the Mediterranean. ‘The 
distance between the Sittrah lake and Farafreh is accomplished in six marches; only 
traces of vegetation occur here and there along this route. 

Cailliaud mentions that, after leaving the Sittrah lake, on his way to Baharieh, scant 
herbage was found, but after this, at the foot of a long mountain, there was a great 
extent of sand impregnated with salt, associated with which there was a small collection 
of saline water which his guide assured him had formerly constituted a part of the 
Sittrah lake. Beyond this point the desert rises to 47 metres, again falling to 
43 métres, and rising once more to $0 métres, followed by a descent to 38 métres, 
with a high desert escarpment on each side of it. ‘This slight depression is the well- 
known Bahr-bela-ma, which is bordered by rocks about 20 metres high and partly by 
slopes and sand-dunes. Zittel states that this valley has nothing in common with 
a river but the name, and Rohlfs says it is of so little importance that it may hence- 
forth disappear from the maps. It passes into the nummulitic plain to the east and at 
last into sand-dunes. As sand is less frequent on this route to Siwah than on that from 
the Fayum, Cailliaud supposed this was the reason why the ancients preferred it to the 
the latter. Jordan, when in the neighbourhood of the Bahr-bela-ina (4th March) 


PLATE V. 


INTROD 


REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 


Western Slope of Desert, at Farafreh. 


Bab el Cailliaud, Oasis of Dakhel. 


“ : 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. XXXVI 


encountered a fall of rain at 10 a.m., lasting about an hour, but so slight that the 
moisture only penetrated the soil from a half to one centimétre in depth, and a little 
more rain fell in the evening. He afterwards ascertained that rain had also fallen at 
Favafreh, on the same forenoon. 

The part of the desert between Bahr-bela-ma and Baharieh seems to be destitute of 
vegetable and animal life. Before the escarpment (194 métres) is reached the route 
passes over rocks and amongst numerous hillocks. Five days are occupied in marching 
from Sittrah to Baharieh. The descent to this oasis, first visited in modern times 
by Belzoni, is much less steep than that of the escarpments of Siwah, Farafreh, and 
Dakhel, being not more than 20 metres in depth. However, after the chief town has 
been reached, a further descent is made to the springs of the oasis, the approach to 
which is described by Jordan as the most beautiful he ever beheld, and reminding him 
of the descent to the oasis of Dakhel. It passes down over deep and large terraces, 
and around the springs are numerous palm-trees and bushes, and Mr. H. Weld-Blundell !, 
who has lately visited it, saw olives, oranges, and other fruits, and observed sheep, 
goats, and cattle. 

Caillaud experienced great variations of temperature during his visit to the oasis of 
Baharieh. In the middle of January water froze overnight, and at 8 a.m. the thermo- 
meter was still only 3° Cent. above freezing, whereas at 3 p.M. it rose as high as 35° Cent. 
The inhabitants informed the traveller that rain falls every year in January. 

Lefebvre, in 1828, found Scincus officinalis in the sandy parts of this depression, and 
the larve of a Salamander in the reedy marshes that occur in the neighbourhood of 
the springs and elsewhere. 

From the oasis of Baharieh, Cailliaud proceeded to that of Farafreh, first made 
known by himself and his fellow-traveller Latorzec. He ascended gradually to the 
south-western extremity of the former depression, where the route attains an altitude 
of 134 metres. At this point the escarpment is scaled, and when its summit is gained 
the surface of the plateau is 193 métres above the sea. ‘The distance between the 
escarpments of the two oases can be traversed in less than two days. ‘The great inter- 
vening plain is covered in places with isolated fiat-topped mounds, but, as a rule, it loses 
itself in the horizon, and, owing to the whiteness of its calcareous scorched surface, the 
glare of the sun reflected from off it is almost unbearable to the traveller and his 
camels. It is apparently devoid of life, but whenever the escarpment overlooking the 
depression of Farafreh is reached, and a slight descent accomplished, the wearied eye is 
gladdened by the sight of vegetation, which appears only as small points of verdure in 
the immensity of the desert around these oases. 

The mammals mentioned by Rohlfs are the inevitable so-called wolf-dog, jackals, 
fennecs, wild cats, mice, jumping mice, and bats; but beyond this most general 
statement, no further information is extant regarding the mammals of this oasis, 


’ Scottish Geogr. Mag. x. 1894, p. 472; Bull. Soc. Khéd. de Géogr. iv. sér. no. 4, 1895, p. 267. 


f2 


XXXVill INTRODUCTION. 


which lies in a depression said by the same traveller to embrace an area of at least 
2000 square kilom. Of the reptiles absolutely nothing is known, but among birds 
he enumerates vultures, ravens, sparrows, the reed-warbler, wagtails, quails, swallowsl 
lapwings, and wild ducks. The products of the soil of this oasis according to Rohlfs 
are the never-absent date-palms, figs, prickly pears, both sweet and bitter oranges, 
lemons, olives, pomegranates, mulberries, the locust-tree, apricots, peaches, carraway- 
seeds, onions, garlic, radishes, turnips, carrots, wheat, oats, rice (sparingly), &c., with a 
little cotton. Acherson, during his visit to this oasis, collected 92 species of plants. 

The climate of Farafreh, according to Rohlfs, is more thoroughly desert than that of 
any of the other oases. The cold at night in winter is great, and the heat in summer 
is unendurable. According to observations made by the same traveller in December, 
the temperature fell to —4° one night, and rose only to 20° Cent. at midday; while 
in the middle of March it was also as low as +2° during night, and did not rise above 
23° Cent. in the middle of the day. Slight rain, as in the neighbouring oasis of 
Baharieh, falls in the months of January and February. 

The thermal springs of this oasis have a temperature of about 26° Cent., but although 
they have a metallic taste they afford the best drinking-water of the Libyan desert. 

Rohlfs’s expedition first approached the oasis of Farafreh from Assiut. They 
ascended the limestone plateau at Mer, to the north of Assiut, on the 20th December, 
1873, where it has an elevation of 96 métres above the sea. They passed over a 
gravelly desert covered with coarse sand, and between low limestone hills, with Jebe 
Ismail to their left. On this part of the desert they met with a few plants such as 
Traganum undatum, Fagonia arabica, Aristida plumosa, Anabasis articulata, Cornulaca 
monacantha, and a species of Salsola. The desert rises to 118 métres, and, beyond, 
Xohlfs and his party found some shallow wadis and gravelly ground covered with 
sand, in places strewn with Nummulites. Vegetation was still represented by such 
plants as Caroaylon fatidum, Farsetia egyptiaca, Calligonum comosum, Ephedra alata, 
Aristida plumosa, and A. zittelii. Sand-dunes were afterwards encountered running 
north and south, and beyond them more vegetation, the desert continuing to rise 
so that on the 24th December they were at an elevation of 219 métres above the 
sea. ‘The route was still enlivened by the sight of a few plants of species already 
mentioned, and after the travellers had passed some low hills they reached, on the 26th 
December, the watershed between the depression of Farafreh and the Nile, at an 
elevation of about 280 metres above the Mediterranean. A sparse vegetation was still 
present, and after descending 42 metres down the plateau, they were astonished to 
meet with many trees of Acacia Seyal and numerous plants of Francoeuria crispa. 
3eyond this there was a slight ascent to the escarpment of the depression which, at the 
“Png Pass,” was found to be 260 metres above the sea. Between the watershed and 
the escarpment they met with distinct traces of rain in the low ground and in the 
hollows in the form of a slimy encrustation several centimétres in thickness. The 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. XXX1X 


descent to the first of the fertile spots on this side of the depression is extremely 
steep and rugged. At the foot an abundance of Alhagi manniferum was met with, 
along with clumps of tamarisk, Calligonum, and wild palms. 

No mention has been made of any animal life having been observed by the members 
of Rohlfs’s expedition along this route, but the comparative abundance of vegetable life 
evinced by the number of species recorded sanctions the supposition that animal life is 
equally well represented. The disturbance necessarily created by the passage of a 
large caravan through the intense and noiseless repose of the desert would scare 
animals away, and this doubtless largely accounts for the meagre reference to their 
presence by travellers. Moreover, the winter, as has been before pointed out, is a 
season of torpidity with reptiles, and, besides, not a few are nocturnal in their habits 
and have to be specially sought for by turning over stones and by searching carefully 
in crevices of rocks and at the roots of plants. 

The desert between Farafreh and Dakhel begins to rise at Bir-Dikker, 95 metres 
above the sea, and at this point a great zone of sand extends nearly to the northern 
escarpment of the oasis of Dakhel. In the neighbourhood of Bir-Dikker, Jordan met 
with Zygophyllum album, Acacia nilotica, Juncus maritimus, tamarisks, isolated date- 
palms, and some other desert plants; but between this portion of the Farafreh 
depression to near the Dakhel escarpment he saw no vegetation. However, at the 
southern end of the zone of sand he found some bushes of Fagonia arabica; and at 
this part of the plateau, 370 métres above the level of the sea, Rohl fs afterwards observed 
Anabasis articulata. ‘Vwospecies of Acanthodactylus ', viz. A. boskianus and A. pardalis, 
were obtained by the Rohlfs Expedition, probably either at Bir-Dikker or to the 
southward of the sand zone. Cailliaud describes the route as traversing at first a more 
or less sandy limestone plain, and afterwards a tract of sand many kilométres in length, 
forming a narrow valley along which it passes. It then ends in another plain strewn 
with irregularly-shaped little rocks, its surface cut up and waved superficially as if by 
water flowing towards the north. The summit of this plain is covered with jagged 
conical hillocks, giving a wild and imposing aspect to the scene and constituting a 
perfect labyrinth of rocks. The highest part just before the descent is made into the 
depression of Dakhel lies 445 métres above the level of the sea. From the edge of the 
escarpment the traveller, for about half an hour, descends through magnificent scenery, 
between the upper Pass or Bab-el-Jasmund, and the lower Pass or Bab-el-Cailliaud 
(Introd. Pl. V.), so called by Rohlfs in honour of the French traveller. In these 
passes, but especially in the lower, sand accumulates in great drifts, very difficult to 
traverse owing to its loose and shifty character. 

Sir Archibald Edmonstone and his companions seem to have been the first Europeans 
who, in modern times, visited this oasis of Dakhel (Introd. Pl. VI.). Their visit took 


* These two species have been included in the Table of Distribution under Oasis of Dakhel, as they were 
found in that neighbourhood. 


xl INTRODUCTION. 


place in February 1818. They approached it from Assiut, and were nearly five days 
crossing the desert, which is at first a vast level plain, but as the route advances the 
desert varies much, and in some places occur hills of considerable magnitude; the sand 
is rarely deep except when drifted into dunes. The day before Edmonstone reached the 
oasis he saw “ coveys of partridges” (probably sand-grouse migrating), 70 to 80 miles 
distant from vegetation of any kind, and he states that lions and tigers! (leopards (3) 
were said to be not uncommon in his day in the Oasis of Dakhel. 

Drovetti!, who visited this oasis about the same time as Edmonstone and Cailiiaud, 
describes the district contiguous to the village of Besendi as well watered by two 
streams, bordered with very ancient and beautiful trees of Acacia nilovica. 

The thermal springs of this oasis, some of them impregnated with sulphur and having 
a temperature of 27° to 36° Cent., may be said to be situated in a great plain about 
100 to 110 métres above the sea, and which rises to the west and north-west, and in 
the former direction from Kasr Dakhel stands an isolated mountain, Jebel Edmon- 
stone, the name being given by Rohlfs in honour of. the British traveller. It is a 
prominent object in the landscape, and to the west of it the region of sand begins to 
show itself. The escarpment (Introd. Pl. VI.) which defines this depression to the 
north rises in bold cliffs that shelter it somewhat from the cold north winds. 

‘Lhree species of reptiles were obtained by the Rohlfs Expedition in this oasis, Varanus 
griseus, Scineus officinalis, and Cerastes cornutus, and one batrachian, Bufo viridis ; 
but as the Dakhel oasis abounds in springs and ditches, the moist soil around them 
being clothed with a variety of verdure, reptilian and batrachian species are probably 
better represented in it than in any of the other oases. It is rich in vegetation, as 
Acherson collected more than two hundred species of plants, comprising some Western 
Saharian forms, but, curiously enough, to the exclusion of the widely spread Plantaga 
major present in the oases of Farafreh and Khargeh. 

Rohlfs and his companions, Zittel and Jordan, attempted to penetrate the desert to 
the west of Dakhel, but when they had reached a point about 450 métres above the 
level of the sea they were compelled to abandon the attempt by reason of the immense 
sea of sand-dunes which they encountered. They therefore directed their course to 
the N.N.W., and proceeded towards the oasis of Siwah along a route previously 
unexplored. On this journey they had their first experience of a continuous rain 
in the Libyan desert. It began at 6 a.m. on the 2nd of February and lasted until 2 p.m. 
on the 4th February ; 16 mm. fell, and the rain penetrated the sand to a depth of 
17 em. ‘They afterwards ascertained that nearly quite as much rain had fallen at 
Dakhel and at Khargeh, but that only a little had been observed at Farafreh, while 
none had fallen at either Baharich or at Siwah. On account of the rain that had fallen, 
they named the place Regenfeld. Beyond, the route descends gradually from 450 métres 
above the sea to 30 métres on the southern escarpment of the oasis of Siwah. ‘heir 


' Phillips's New Voy. and Travels, (8) vol. vil. 


REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. INTROD. PLATE VI. 


Oasis of Dakhel, Escarpment of Plateau in the distance. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. xh 


journey from Regenfeld to the oasis was accomplished in twelve marches; but they 
found much difficulty in travelling, having met with a sand-storm and being exposed 
to a cold chilly north wind. Vegetation was noticed only at one spot. On their 
fifth march, at Zittel’s Ammonite hill, which marks a depression 250 métres above the 
sea, defined to the north by an escarpment 100 m. high, an example of Colopeltis 
monspessulana, several feet in length, was captured lying in a cleft of rock. Nothing 
was found in its stomach except sand, but other animal life had been present, as it is 
stated that the snake fed either on small insects, lizards, mice or jumping mice, and it 
is added that a few plants were present, especially the grass, Aristida plumosa. 

In the Regenfeld the temperature at 6 4.M. from the 28th January to the 4th February 
varied from 2° to 11°9 Cent., and at 2 in the afternoon during the same period from 
"4 (after rain) to 208 Cent. The rainfall experienced by Rohlfs was, however, quite 
exceptional. When rain does fall in this part of the desert, it is restricted, as a 
rule, to the months of January and February, and it generally assumes the form of 
gentle showers occurring now and again after years of absolute drought. An occasional 
thunderstorm may very rarely occur at other seasons, attended by a few drops of rain. 

The oasis of Khargeh was visited by Poncet on his journey from Assiut southwards 
towards Abyssinia in the closing years of the 17th century, and by Browne a century 
later. Drovetti, Consul-General of France in Egypt, also passed through Khargeh on 
his journey to Dongola and Dar-Fur prior to 1818; and Sir Archibald Edmonstone 
and his companions, after they had visited the Dakhel oasis, proceeded to Khargeh by 
the usual route across a southward projection of the Libyan plateau to Ain Amur. In 
June 1818, Cailliaud, after the completion of his observations in the Eastern desert ', 
was at Esneh preparing for his journey to the oasis of Khargeh. He started on the 
26th June, and in the latter part of the same year Drovetti again visited the oasis of 
Khargeh and passed on to Dakhel. Since their days these oases have been visited by 
many Europeans, who have published the results of their observations, while others, it 
is to be regretted, have not done so. ‘Towards the end of June, when Cailliaud reached 
the plateau, he suffered severely from a scorching south wind, against the full blast of 
which he traversed an enormous sandy desert, dotted over with little hills. The 
courage and enthusiasm of the young traveller, however, were soon rewarded by a 
change in the wind, which veered round to the cooler north. On the fourth day, he 
passed down a defile and thus began his descent to the depression in which the oasis 
of Khargeh and its minor oases stud the monotonous, barren, yellow plain like green 
islands. Along his route he had noticed neither vegetable nor animal life, bat Rohlfs, 
who, many years afterwards, followed the same route, in the month of March, however, 
met with nearly the same plants as those with which he had been familiar on his 
march from Assiut to Farafreh in the month of December. The circumstance that 


* «Travels in the Oasis of Thebes and in the Deserts East and West of the Thebaid, 1815-1818,’ see 
Phillips’s New Voy. and Travels, (3) vii. 1822. 


xhi INTRODUCTION. 


Cailliaud’s journey was made in June probably accounts for the disappearance of 
all vegetation, whilst Rohlfs’s visit, besides being made in winter, took place in a 
year remarkable for its exceptionally heavy rainfall. 

The oases of the Khargeh depression cover an area 120 kilometres in length. 
‘Lhe chief oasis lies 69 métres above the sea. It has the same productions as those of 
the other oases, and it is especially well supplied with water. Cailliaud affords 
absolutely no information about its fauna. 

Hoskins !, who visited Khargeh, in 1835, states that wolves, hyenas, and gazelles 
found a favourite resort among the rocks of an eminence, surrounded by sand-dunes. on 
which two convents stood. Some definite information about its reptiles was obtained 
by the Rohlfs expedition, who found an Agama (? sinaita) and Chalcides ocellatus, to 
which have to be added Evemias rubropunctata collected by Professor Sickenberger, 
and Psemmophis schokari from Berys, one of the oases to the south, where it was 
procured by Major Lyons. It was the latter oasis to which Cailliaud first directed his 
steps after leaving the small oasis of Hagegeh, situated on rising ground covered with 
sand, but bearing a few dhum-palms and some date-trees, with orchards, and fields of 
dhurra irrigated from a spring of fresh water. ‘The village of Berys, on an elevated 
rock, has near it some copious springs of hot water, varying in temperature from 
26°-6 to 32°-2 Cent., one of which, Cailliaud says, issues with such force from the middle 
of a pond that a person descending into the cavity whence it bubbles forth would be 
carried away by it. Like all such hot springs in the oases, these are used for 
irrigation. Cultivation is here carried on under great difficulties, as palisades, made 
from the stalks of the date-palm, have to be erected as a protection against the steady 
inroads of the desert sands. 

Schweinfurth 2, who visited the oasis of Khargeh, in 1874, advanced from Assiut 
and retraced his steps to the Nile by Girgeh. In his references to the animal life of 
the oasis, no mention is made of either Reptiles or Batrachians, except a passing 
allusion to lizards. Although springs, brooks, and ponds abound, he affirms that 
no fish are present, and that, owing to the damp summer miasma and plagues of 
midges, it has been found impossible to acclimatize the camel; but, on the other hand, 
donkeys, sheep, and cattle are easily reared. Schweinfurth found five species of 
carnivorous Mammalia, animals which he says are almost without exception nocturnal, 
but by the aid of traps he succeeded in obtaining a great number of them. ‘The 
species he enumerates are the dog-wolf, the Libyan cat, the dog-hyena (Canis pictus), 
the jackal, and the Nile fox. ‘The food of the Jast two, he states, consists largely of 
rodents (viz. Dipus and Grerbillus) and lizards, in which the desert abounds. Locusts, 
fowls, and domestic pigeons also are plentiful. Besides these, he mentions two species 
of antelopes of the oasis under the names of Antilope dorcas and A. dame. He 


1 ¢ Visit to the Great Oasis of the Libyan Desert,’ by G. A. Hoskins, 1837. 
2 Bull. Soc. Geogr. Paris, 1874, 6 sér. vii. p. 627; Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1874, p. 173. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. xhil 


contradicts Edmonstone’s statement about the existence of the lion, which he says is 
unknown. The temperature and rainfall of this oasis are much the same as in Dakhel. 

To the east of the oasis of Khargeh, and between it and Assuan, lies the small but 
little-known oasis of Kurkur. 

About 500 species of wild and cultivated plants were collected by Acherson in the 
oases of Farafreh, Dakhel, and Khargeh. The greater proportion of these species have 
been found to be of Kuropean origin, whereas the majority of the wild and cultivated 
plants of Egypt are essentially African in their descent. ‘The strong affinity which the 
flora of the oases presents to that of Europe sanctions the inference which has been 
put forward in explanation of it, viz., that the area of the Libyan desert in which the 
depressions lie had been directly continuous with the lands of the Western Mediter- 
ranean before it had formed part of Egypt. It remains yet to be ascertained whether 
the fauna of the oases will also favour a similar conclusion. The foregoing relations 
between the flora of the oases and that of Europe should, however, be kept in view in 
studying the eastern distribution in North Africa of south-western European species of 
reptiles, one or more of which have been reported as far east as the Delta, and one 
species in the south-east even as far as Somaliland. 

Major Lyons !, who has traversed the portion of the Libyan desert immediately to the 
south of the oases of Khargeh and Dakhel, describes it as a sandstone plateau falling 
away towards the north. A few hills rise from the plateau, but they are never more 
than 61 to 76 métres above its level. ‘The sandy desert of this great region is almost 
destitute of vegetable and animal life, except in the neighbourhood of some other 
oases to the south, such as the oasis of Selima on the caravan-route between Assuan 
and Dar-Fur, and in the Wadi el Kab to the west of Dongola. The former is of no 
great extent, and lies in an undulating plain, over which low rocks are scattered, and 
it is surrounded more or less by a low escarpment. Browne rested at this oasis for a 
day in the month of June, 1793, on his way to Dar-Fur. He describes it as a verdant 
spot at the foot of a ridge of rocks of no great height, affording the best water along 
the route, but devoid of vegetation “fit for the support of either man or beast.” 
Cailliaud, however, in 1822, found tamarisks and date-palms in this small oasis. 
The Wadi el Kab lies to the west of Dongola. It is a depression below the level of 
the high Nile, and is shut off from the river by rising ground about 5 to 6 kilom. in 
breadth, beyond which the land slopes to the west in a succession of terraces for about 
a distance of 11 to 12 kilom., when the edge of the oasis is reached, defined by low 
cliffs. It is about 200 kilom. in length, and in some places 8 kilom. in breadth. 
It is plentifully supplied with water, as there are numerous springs and sheets 
of water, and consequently there are groves of date-palms and other trees and 
sufficient pasturage to support the flocks of the Kababish Arabs who frequent it. 
Its southern end lies within the extreme northern limit of the area of periodical rains. 


? Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. ]. 1894, p. 531. 


xliv INTRODUCTION. 


Owing to its fertility and geographical position, an investigation of its fauna would 
probably yield interesting results. 

Before leaving the oases of the Libyan desert, the Fayum and the Wadi el Natrun 
require to be noticed. ‘The first of these depressions is surrounded by the desert, 
except at the point where the Bahr Yusuf enters it, but the interspace is so narrow, 
being not more than four to twelve kilometres in breadth, and the intervening heights 
are so low, that the Fayum may be considered as a part of Egypt proper, so far as its 
zoology is concerned ; and, in connection with this, the Fayum is interesting as being 
the northern limit to the distribution of the egg-eating snake, Dasypeltis scabra. It is 
in no sense isolated from the valley of the Nile, as the course of the Bahr Yusuf is 
marked by cultivation linking its fields with those of the Nile. 

The valley of the seven or eight permanent Natron lakes, visited by Browne in May 
1792, and seven years later described by Andréossy!, is separated from the Nile by a 
shingly desert about 39 kilom. in breadth. It is usually approached from near Teraneh, 
and when the road reaches the low-level summit of the undulating plateau which 
slightly ascends towards the west, it at last begins to descend to the ridge of the valley 
which is of no great height. ‘The depression in which these lakes, ponds, and shallow 
morasses are situated is supposed to lie below the level of the Nile. It is 36 kilom. 
long and is about 12 kilom. in its broadest part, but the actual plain, which is more or 
less covered with low isolated hills and banks of sand, is much narrower. The water 
in the shallow basins begins to rise towards the end of September, and continues to 
do so until the end of December, but in summer many of the smaller basins completely 
dry up. During the foregoing period the water oozes up on the eastern side of the 
valley and flows down to the basins in blood-coloured streams due to the presence 
of some minute organisms. <A certain amount of water is also supplied to them by 
the winter rains. Browne states that no vegetation was visible during his visit except 
the reeds on the margins of the lakes; but Wilkinson”, in 1842, found that, although 
the valley possessed no trees, the usual plants of the desert, including some tamarisk 
bushes and stunted palms, were also present, besides reeds and rushes deriving their 
support from springs of fresh water. 

An antelope and the ostrich were, according to Browne, the only wild animals that 
frequented that part of the country in his time, but Wilkinson mentions the presence in 
the Natron valley of a gazelle (? G. dcptoceros), a jerboa, and foxes, besides a few of the 
other common animals of the Libyan hills. In James Burton’s manuscripts in the 

3ritish Museum, the interesting fact is recorded that 7rionya triunguis existed in the 

waters of the Natron Lakes. If this observation was correct, it is of considerable 
importance, as it may be inferred from it that the Wadi el Natrun had been at some 
period of its history in direct relation with the Nile. ‘The chameleon is said to occur 
in the valley, and very explicit statements have been made by some of my informants 
as to the presence of the wild pig on its sedgy ground. 


' Mém. sur l’Egypte, i. (1799-1810), p. 223. * Journ. Geogr. Soc, 1843, p. 118. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. xlv 


The physical features of the escarpment of the Libyan plateau along the Nile are 
well illustrated by the views on Introd. Pl. VIL., for which I am indebted to Professor 
Flinders Petrie. The portion of the escarpment defining the Nile Valley in Lower 
Egypt is markedly different from the escarpment at Naquada, below Thebes. In the 
former region, the plateau generally approaches the Nile as low rounded spurs about 
200 métres above sea-level, separated frequently by shallow valleys the floors of which 
are more or less covered with loose stones, or it may be with fragments of shattered 
limestone, with accumulations of drifted sand, here and there, in the hollows. At 
Naquada, on the other hand, the escarpment has a very rugged configuration and rises 
to 500 métres above the sea. It is cut up into ridges separated by deep ravines, some 
of the latter of considerable length and depth, and presenting the appearance, remark- 
able in an almost rainless desert, as if they had recently contained running streams. 
Similar valleys occur throughout the escarpment, but none perhaps having the foregoing 
characters better defined than those of Naquada. Along these valleys vegetation 
generally finds its way and spreads on to the plateau, as has been illustrated by the 
itineraries of the travellers whose observations have been cited. Between the base of 
the escarpments and the alluvium, on both sides of the Nile, there is usually a fore- 
shore, so to speak, of shingly land supporting a straggling and sparse vegetation of 
ordinary desert plants, more or less merging with the vegetation of the alluvium. ‘This 
foreshore, the wide plains that occasionally separate the elevated desert from the Nile, 
the escarpments with their valleys; and the immediately adjoining surface of the 
plateau are the areas over which animal life is chiefly distributed, so that an enumera- 
tion of the species found on these areas would practically embrace the reptilian fauna 
of the Nile Valley. ‘The annual submergence of the alluvium is the reason why so 
limited a number of species is found on the cultivated area. In the months when the 
fields are devoid of water and the soil is once again nearly dry, a number of lacertine 
genera are temporarily distributed over it, such as Agama, Acanthodactylus, Kremias, 
and Mabuia; and along with them such genera of snakes as Eryx, Zamenis, Psanunophis, 
Tarbophis, and Naja. Certain mammals also which have their lairs, as a rule, among 
the rocks of the escarpments or on the neighbouring plateau, find a safe shelter and an 
abundant supply of food amid the fields of beans, cereals, and sugar-cane. 

The climate of the narrow area enclosed by the escarpments of the desert defining 
the course of the Nile differs but little from the climate of the great regions immediately 
to the east and west of the river. ‘The rainfall is about the same in all, but in the 
lower part of the valley the climatic conditions of the Mediterranean basin occasionally 
make themselves felt. It cannot be said that the narrow valley is entirely devoid of 
rain, aS seasous now and again recur when it falls in places in gentle showers. 
Frequently, however, years may pass without a drop of rain falling, and thus 
vegetation beyond the influence of the Nile floods becomes completely burned up with 
the exception of a few hardy acacia-trees, and consequently many of the small mammals 
die, whilst the larger forms are driven elsewhere in search of food. 

g2 


xlvi INTRODUCTION. 


The physical features of both sides of the Nile indicate the existence of a period long 
antecedent to the present, in which a considerable rainfall prevailed, as in the eroded 
valleys of the desert there may be observed rocky ravines which have been carved 
out by the action of water, which has left behind it dry channels over which waterfalls 
had once precipitated themselves, and others down which cataracts had once raced. 
The rainfall of the present is not sufficient to account for such a degree of erosion, 
unless it be supposed that it has been prolonged over an almost incalculable period of 
time, a supposition which does not meet with support when other considerations are 
brought under review. On the other hand, the entire evidence seems to sanction the 
conclusion that a material change in the character of the climate of North-eastern 
Africa, so far as its rainfall is concerned, has taken place since the days when the 
ancient Egyptians represented on the monuments of Sakkarah the various animals 
with which they were familiar. The camel was seemingly unknown to that ancient 
people: at least no figure of it has been bequeathed by them to us, whereas, for example, 
representations of the elephant! are present, and on ivory carvings of an almost pre- 
historic age figures of elephants are found associated with others of the ibex of the 
Arabian desert. The elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, lion, and hyena, along with 
some other large mammalia, existed in Central Kurope in Miocene times, but were 
then unknown in Africa, which they reached only at a comparatively modern period. 
From the nature and habits of some of these animals it is self-evident that the climate 
then must have been a moist one and with a rainfall which ensured an abundant supply 
of vegetation and water. The gradual disappearance of this rain and consequent slow 
conversion of North-east Africa into a semi-desert led to the retirement southwards of 
the larger of these mammals to the region of periodical rains. 

Besides the slight and rare rainfall along the course of the Nile Valley, a certain 
amount of dew falls at night even on the desert. In winter the dew on the plants on 
the cultivated lands has now and again been noticed in early morning sparkling with 
icicles, whilst the surface of the desert may in places be white with hoar frost. 

The intense heat of the desert is the cause of a great indraught of cold air from the 
north during the greater part of the year, so that winds from that quarter are six times 
more prevalent than those from the south. In March to May the hot khamsin charged 
with dust blows sometimes for days at a time, while the sun is above the horizon, 
drying up vegetation and exhausting animal life. 

The great triangular level alluvial expanse of the Delta of the Nile is enclosed on its 
eastern and western sides respectively by the Arabian and Libyan deserts. Nearly the 
whole of the seaward face of the Delta is occupied by a series of great lakes and swamps 
of brackish and even saline waters, surrounded more or less by sedgy banks. These 
extensive lakes are separated from the sea by sand-dunes, generally resting on a solid 
reef, made up of sea and freshwater shells, which forms a barrier against the encroach- 


‘ The elephant is unmistakably represented in Roman mosaics, &c., in Tunisia. Johnston, P. Z.S. 1898, 


52 


p- vo 


REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 


No. 1.—Escarpment of desert plateau at Abu Roash. Alt. about 183 métres 


above Nile. 


No. 2.—Desert plateau, behind Gizeh, looking south-west. Alt. about 76 


métres above Nile. 


No. 3.—Outcrop of limestone desert, behind Gizeh, looking eastward across 


Nile to Mokattam hills. 


Alt. about 122 métres above Nile. 


INTROD. PLATE VII. 


No. 4.—View from top of escarpment of desert plateau above Naquada, looking 
across Nile valley to the eastern desert. Alt. about 365 métres 


above Nile. 


No. 5.—View from top of plateau above Naquada, looking westward down a 
valley of the desert.. Alt. about 426 métres above Nile. 


No. 6.—View through cleft from top of plateau above Naquada, looking into 
Nile valley. Alt. about 426 métres above Nile. 


PHYSICAL FEATURES. xlvil 


ments of the Mediterranean. In the neighbourhood of these lakes, between the two 
deserts, is a tract of land lying almost at the level of their waters and covered with a 
low scrubby vegetation. To the west of Lake Maryut low, rounded, detached ranges of 
hills extend to the south-west, their stony slopes covered, more or less, with a variety 
of plants, and the depressions between them, near the lake, yielding crops to the 
inhabitants of some straggling villages. 

Owing to its proximity to the Mediterranean, the Delta, but more especially the 
region of the lakes, is subject to all the vicissitudes of the climate of that sea, the 
south-eastern extremity of which, however, is not liable to a heavy rainfall. Winter 
is the season of rain, and, on the coast at Alexandria, the mean annual rainfall, from 
1873 to 1881, was 215°70 mm., whereas, at Cairo, the mean annual discharge is 
only about 33 mm. The former city is now and again visited in winter by storms 
of rain accompanied by high winds, which in their destructive effects, on the trees 
of the gardens in and around the city, almost remind one of the havoc wrought by 
an eastern cyclone. ‘These storms make themselves felt even as far as Cairo, where 
the rain occasionally falls in such quantities as to flood the streets. They may also 
reach the plateau of the desert between Gizeh and Sakkarah, and crossing the valley 
precipitate themselves, sometimes accompanied by hail, in such torrents on the 
mountains near Heluan that the floods in their rush to the Nile scour out the deep 
wadis of the desert and have been known to carry away even a village and railway- 
culvert in their course. ‘The Mediterranean storms from the north-west also, now 
and again, extend to Suez, even as late as April, when the rain may fall for many 
hours as a cold drizzle driven by a strong wind. 

The air of the Delta contains a considerable amount of moisture, especially abundant 
during the prevalence of sea-breezes, and at night it precipitates itself as a heavy dew, 
exercising a wonderfully refreshing influence on vegetation. 

The mean annual temperature of the Delta, at the sea, is about 20° Cent., and that 
of Cairo is about two degrees hotter. The mean winter temperature of the former 
area is 14°44 Cent., and the mean summer temperature 30°. The winter and spring 
mean temperatures of Cairo are somewhat lower than the corresponding means of the 
coast-line, whereas its summer heat is greater. 

The reptiles of the Delta are chiefly found on the semi-desert areas that enclose it, 
on those skirting the lakes, and along the coast-line with its sand-dunes; but many 
species have also a wide range over the Delta proper, as they appear generally wherever 
there is elevated ground. Only one species of the caudate batrachians is known to be 
present in the Delta; but although the species of the ecaudate section do not exceed 
five in number, some of them are represented during the period of high Nile by 
multitudes of individuals. 


xlvili INTRODUCTION. 


ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE BEARING ON THE AREAS TREATED OF IN THIS WORK. 


From the time of the visit of Herodotus to Egypt until Hasselquist’s day a long list 
of authors, including Aldrovandus and others, might be quoted who dealt, more or 
less, with the animals of the country, but whose descriptions were inyariably confined, 
so far as Reptiles were concerned, to the crocodile, land-tortoise, Nile turtle, Sted/io, 
waral, scink, chameleon, asp, horned viper, hornless Cerastes, and flying serpents. 
The distinguished Arab traveller and physician of Baghdad, Abd-Allatif*, who visited 
Egypt in the 14th century, mentioned nearly all of these animals. In later years 
(1546-49) the careful and observing Belon? did the same, and did not omit to bring 
in the winged snake or dragon, in which he apparently so firmly believed that he 
gave the figure of one, a creature of his own and of his artist’s imagination. 

Prospero Alpini ®, physician to the Consul of the Venetian Republic in Egypt, who 
resided at Cairo from 1581 to 1584, may next be noticed, as he paid particular attention, 
not only to the botany of Egypt, but also to the zoology of the country, to which he 
devoted the fourth book of his ‘Rerum Megyptiarum.’ In the fourth chapter, the 
serpents common in Egypt, and, in the fifth chapter, ‘‘ the animals of the lizard tribe 
which dwell there,’ are described. The lizards are restricted to the Seps, chameleon, 
scink, and crocodile, but what he meant by the first-mentioned and the scik it is 
impossible to say. His description of the snakes is equally unsatisfactory, and his 
treatment of both of these sections of animal life leads to the belief that his statements 
were largely based on hearsay; it should, however, be remembered that the ‘ Rerum 
Egyptiarum’ was published after his death. 

The writings of Shaw 4 and of Pococke® do not add to our knowledge of the fauna 
of Egypt. 

A period of almost 200 years elapsed after Belon before the appearance of the next 
really important work on the zoology of Egypt, the materials for which had been 
collected by Linneus’s pupil, Frederick Hasselquist®, born at East Gothia on the 
3rd January, 1722. When he was twenty-five years of age he listened to one of 
Linnzus’s botanical lectures, in which the great Swede deplored the ignorance that then 
existed regarding the natural history of Palestine. Hasselquist became fired with an 
enthusiastic desire to be the first to make it known ; but Linneus, being aware of the 
indifferent state of his pupil’s health and of the difficulty of raising money for such an 


1 Relation de Egypte, par Abd-Allatif, par M. Silvestre de Sacy. 1810. 
* Les Observations de Plusieurs Singularitez, &c. Paris, 1554. 

* Rerum gyptiarum. 1735. 

* Travels and Observations relating to Barbary. 1738. 
5 A Descr. of the East, &c. 17438. 


° Iter Palestinum. 1757. 


ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. xlix 


object, tried all in his power to dissuade him from entering upon so arduous an 
undertaking, without success, however, as Hasselquist signified his intention to walk 
all the way on foot rather than have his desire frustrated. A small sum, however, was 
contributed by a few public-spirited individuals, and, as it was afterwards supplemented 
from some other sources, he was ultimately in a position to undertake the journey. 
A free passage to Smyrna having been granted to him by the Levant Company, 
Hasselquist sailed for the East on the 7th August, 1749, arriving at Smyrna on the 
26th November, and after a residence in that town of about four and a half months 
he set out for Alexandria, which he reached on the 13th May, 1750. He resided 
there for a short time, and afterwards proceeded by Rosetta to Cairo, where he arrived 
in the month of July. His residence in Egypt extended over nearly a year. He left 
the country by Damietta on the 28th March, 1751, and visited Palestine, where he 
spent about seven weeks. ‘Thence he sailed to Cyprus, Rhodes, and Chios, and he 
landed again in Smyrna in the beginning of August of the same year. 

His life in Cairo, where the greater part of his time was spent, was but little 
conducive to an attainment of a knowledge of the natural history of Egypt, which was 
then, he says, governed by rebels who had been slaves, and under whose rule 
Christians were so despised and badly treated that he had to live in a kind of civil 
arrest and to keep his chamber. When he ventured out into the town or country, 
he had te commit himself to the hands of soldiers, who conducted him with staffs 
and pikes amid their “villainous brethren”; and he adds that to travel to Cairo in 
those days and to live there for some time was like doing penance for crimes. It is 
thus apparent that he had great difficulties to contend with in prosecuting his natural- 
history researches. 

In the posthumous work, the ‘Iter Palestinum,’ the following species are indi- 


cated :— 

Lacerta crocodilus, Hasselq. & Linn. = Crocodilus niloticus, Laur. [Cope. 
» chameleon, Hasselq. & Linn. = ? Chameleon vulgaris, Daud., or ? C. basiliscus, 
»  stellio, Linn. = Agama stellio (Linn.). 
»  @gyptia, Wasselq. & Linn. = Uromastix egyptius (Hasselq. & Linn.). 
» gecko, non Linn. ; = Ptyodactylus hasselquistii (Donndorft). 
» scincus, Hasselq. & Linn.' = Scincus officinalis, Laur. 
»  nilotica, Hasselq. & Linn. = Varanus niloticus (Hasselq. & Linn.). 

Coluber vipera, Hasselq. & Linn.' = Cerastes vipera (Hasselq. & Linn.). 
5,  cornutus, Hasselq. & Linn.! = 9 cornutus (Hasselq. & Linn.). 
»  Aaje, Hasselq. & Linn. = Naja haje (Hasselq. & Linn.). 

Anguis jaculus, Hasselq. & Linn. = Eryx jaculus (Hasselq. & Linn.). 

? 4, colubrinus, Hasselq. & Linn. =? ,, thebaicus (Hasselq. & Linn.). 

»  cerastes, Hasselg. & Linn.! = ,, jaculus (Hasselq. & Linn.). 


1 First described in the Act. Ac. Se. Upsal., 1751. 


] INTRODUCTION. 


Linneus, who had access to the whole of Hasselquist’s collection when he edited 
the ‘Iter Palestinum,’ described, in the 12th ed. of the ‘Syst. Nature,’ the following 
snakes, which he states had been collected by Hasselquist in Egypt, viz.: Coluber 
situla, Linn., Coluber jugularis, Linn., and Coluber tyria, Linn. ‘The type specimen of 
the first of these serpents is still preserved in the Stockholm Museum, and it proves to 
be the snake described by Bonaparte, in 1839, as Callopeltis leopardinus. ‘The 
specimen of Coluber jugularis is the exact equivalent of Natriz gemonensis, Laur., 
=Zamenis gemonensis (Laur.) var. asiana, Boettger, but as it cannot unhesitatingly 
be accepted as the type of the species, the latter name willstand. ‘The type of C. tyria, 
Linn., has unfortunately been lost, and the description is so indefinite that only a 
vague guess can be made regarding it. It appears from Hasselquist’s correspondence - 
that he sent only six species of snakes from Egypt; and keeping in view the fact that 
neither Coluber situla, Linn., nor Zamenis gemonensis (Laur.) has ever been recorded 
from Egypt, on reliable evidence, since the 12th edit. of the Syst. Nat. appeared, the 
possibility suggests itself that these two species were never obtained in Egypt, but 
that they formed part of Hasselquist’s collection from one of the other localities 
visited by him. 

Linneus, in the Catalogue of the Museum of Adolphus Frederick, records Vipera 
lebetina as an Egyptian snake; but in the 12th ed. of the Syst. Nat. “ Hab. Oriente” 
is substituted for Egypt, and Hasselquist’s name is omitted. 

The Danish expedition under Niebuhr, of which Forskal was the biologist, visited 
Egypt; and in the latter’s posthumous work! the turtle of the Nile is indicated as 
Testudo triunguis, Forskal=Trionyx triunguis (Forskal), and a common North- 
African lizard is named Lacerta ocellata, Forskal=Chalcides ocellatus (Forskal). A 
snake he met with in Cairo he named Coluber guttatus, but the details he gave 
regarding it are too vague to admit of its determination. The same is also true of 
the lizard from the desert about Cairo named by him. Lacerta herbai. 

W.G. Browne, of Oriel College, Oxford, made some adventurous journeys in Egypt 
between 1792-1798, and on his visit to Dar-Fur, which was protracted over a period of 
three years, owing to his enforced detention, he made some natural-history notes, but 
they were unfortunately lost at Alexandria. He, however, mentions the presence at 
Dar-Fur of a cobra which he calls Naja haje, and of the snakes Coluber vipera and 
Anguis colubrinus (= Eryx thebaicus), and an abundance of chameleons. 

Guillaume Antoine Olivier *, while on his way to Persia, spent about the last six 
months of 1794 and the first few months of 1795 in Lower Egypt. He described 
from the sands of Rosetta the scink now known as Mabuia vittata (Olivier), and also 


' Deser. Animalium. 1775. 
* Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria. 1799. 
* Voyage dans Empire Othoman, Egypte, &e. 1801. 


ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. , li 


collected, according to A. Duméril, examples of Tarentola mauritanica (Linn.); but 
this gecko first appears in literature, as an Egyptian species, in Daudin’s ‘ Reptiles’ 1, 
under the name of Gecko fascicularis, Daud. 

The close of the eighteenth century is memorable by reason of the French Expedition 
to Egypt. The principal zoologists who accompanied this Scientific Mission were 
Etienne Geoffroy St.-Hilaire and Jules Savigny. But as the complete results of 
the labours of E. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire regarding the Reptiles did not appear until 
almost the close of the second decade of the present century, the literature that 
appeared before the French work was published has first to be considered. 

In the eighth volume of Daudin’s ‘ Reptiles’? the two species of the genus Varanus 
- were differentiated; the purely terrestrial form, which had apparently not been 
distinguished from the aquatic V. niloticus, was indicated as Tupinambis griseus = 
V. griseus. 

Merrem , whose Syst. Amph. was published in 1820, had access to the first part of 
the ‘ Atlas’ illustrating the results of Geoffroy’s and Savigny’s work in Egypt. He 
selected the lizard figured on pl. v. figs. 3 and 4, illustrating the reptiles, as the type 
of one of his sections of the genus Agama and named it Agama mutabilis. 

Lichtenstein 4, in 1823, made the following additions to the fauna of Egypt proper 
and to that of the upper part of the Nile Valley :— 


Testudo greca, Linn. Testudo leith, Gthr. 
Ascalabotes sthenodactylus, Licht. = Stenodactylus elegans, Fitz. 
Uromastiz ocellatus, Licht. 


Lacerta boskiana, Daud. = Acanthodactylus boskianus (Daud.). 

»  pardalis, Licht. = 2 pardalis (Licht.). 

3)  grammica, Licht. part. = 3 scutellatus (Aud.). 

»  guttulata, Licht. = Eremias guttulata (Licht.). 

»  rubropunctata, Ticht. = »  rubropunctata (Licht.). 
Scincus quinqueteniatus, Licht. = Mabuia quinqueteniata (Licht.). 
Coluber moniliger, Daud. = Psammophis sibilans (Linn.). 

Bufo viridis, Laur. 
y» cinereus (non Schn.). = Bufo regularis, Reuss. 


Besides these, Bufo fuscus, Laur., was stated to be present in Nubia, but it is 
impossible to say what species may have been meant. 

Riippell, in the beginning of 1817, visited Egypt for the first time. He landed at 
Alexandria and proceeded by Rosetta to Cairo and the Fayum and as far as the First 
Cataract. On his return to Lower Egypt, he visited Arabia Petreea (Sinaitic Peninsula) 


‘ Daud. Hist. Rept. iv. 1803. * Hist. Nat. des Rept. vol. viii. 1803. 
* Syst. Amph. 1820. * Doubl. Zool. Mus. Berl. 1823. 
My Ip 


h 


hi INTRODUCTION. 


and in the autumn of the same year returned to Frankfort. On his second visit 
(1822) he was accompanied by Surgeon Michael Hey, and on their arrival in Egypt they 
turned their steps towards the Fayum, thence by way of Damietta to Lake Menzaleh, 
and afterwards to Alexandria, where Riippell met Hemprich, the companion of 
Ehrenberg who was then in Dongola. Riippell and his companion Hey then pro- 
ceeded up the Nile to Thebes, whence they made an excursion to Kosseir. ‘They 
afterwards continued their journey to the south as far as Dongola, and after a short 
residence there Riippell returned to Cairo, but when the hot season had passed he 
rejoined his companion. He attempted, in the end of 1823, to reach Kordofan, 
but failed, and returned to Cairo in June 1824. ‘Towards the latter part of that 
year he and his companion again set out for New Dongola. In the end of that 
year Riippell with some of his attendants started for Kordofan across the desert of 
Simri, and on the 13th July, 1825, reached the capital. He remained seven weeks in 
Kordofan and returned to Cairo in the month of July. He was the first scientific 
traveller to visit Kordofan. He spent the first half of the year 1826 on the coast of 
the Gulf of Suez, and Akaba, making long excursions into the country, into the Sinaitic 
Peninsula, and along the coast to El Tor. He also sailed along the coast to Massowah. 
He returned to Europe, arriving at Leyden on the 20th Sept., 1827. In the autumn of 
1830 Riippell, accompanied by Theodore Erckel, set out again for Egypt and made 
another expedition, in the early part of 1831, to the Sinaitic Peninsula, where he spent 
some time. He then proceeded to Massowah, which he reached 17th Sept., 1831, 
and remained in Abyssinia until after the middle of 1833. On his way up the Red Sea 
he stopped at Jiddah, to study its natural history, and remained there apparently for 
some months. Returning to Egypt he resided at Cairo from November 1833 to the 
spring of 1834, when he finally returned to Europe. The results attained by Riippell 
on his excursions in Egypt, including his journey to Kordofan and apparently his 
first visit to Massowah, were described by C. H. G. von Heyden }. 
The following species were new to the fauna of the Nile Valley :— 


Hemidactylus granosus, Heyden. = Hemidactylus turcicus (Linn.). 
Agama arenaria, Heyden. = Agama sinaita, Heyden. 
Uromastix dispar, Heyden. = Uromastix acanthinurus, Bell. 


Varanus ocellatus, Heyden. 


In 1823, when Riippell was attempting to enter Kordofan, and Hemprich and 
Ehrenberg? were conducting their natural-history researches at Damietta, Wilkinson 
and Burton (afterwards Haliburton) were exploring Lower Egypt from an archeological 
standpoint, but at the same time were not wholly ignoring its fauna, as is evinced by 
their donations to the British Museum. 


Atlas nordl. Afr., Riippell (1827). 
* Reisen durch Nord-Afr. (Reisen in Aegypten, Libyen, Nubien u. Dongala, 1828). 


ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. lai 


Giovanni Battista Brocchi?, a celebrated Italian mineralogist, was appointed by 
Mohammed Ali to be a member of the Scientific Commission attached to the Expe- 
dition which was dispatched, in 1823, for the conquest of Sennaar. He died at 
Khartum in 1826. In the Atlas to his posthumous work two lizards and two snakes 
are figured from that part of the Nile Valley. One of the lizards is Scincus officinalis, 
while the other figure suggests the Agama described by Peters from Senaar, in 1862, as 
Agama hartmanni. One of the snakes represented is an Eryx, possibly H. muelleri, Blgr., 
but it is impossible to say what species the other figure depicts. 

Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the date of publication of the contributions 
of E. Geoff. St.-Hilaire, Is. Geoff. St.-Hilaire, and Victor Audouin to the first volume 
of the Natural History of the ‘ Description de Veypte’ which bears the date 1809. 
As the second of these distinguished men was born in Paris, in 1805, the fallacy of the 
date is self-evident; and as he was only made assistant to his father when he was 
nineteen years of age, the discrepancy between the date the volume bears and its 
possible actual date of publication is still further emphasized. A consideration of the 
literature of the period and a study of the evidence derived from the book itself by 
the passing references it contains to the literature of the time sanction the conclusion 
that Is. Geoffroy’s portion was not completed before 1827 and that Audouin’s part 
was not finished before 1829. 

E. Geoffroy’s researches, and likewise Savigny’s, were first carried on in the Delta, 
but were afterwards continued in Upper Egypt; no details, however, are youchsafed 
regarding the exact localities in which the specimens were found, except in two 
instances in which the two serpents are designated after the districts in which they 
were obtained. 

The following are the additions that were made to the Reptilians and Batrachians 
of Egypt by BE. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire and his colleagues :— 


Trapelus savignyi, Aud., var. = Stenodactylus petrii, Anders. 
Gecko annularis, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. = Turentola annularis (Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil.). 
LT? Agame variable ou Le Changeant. = Agama mutabilis, Merrem. 
Agama ruderata (non Olivier), Aud. = 4, pallida, Reuss. 
»  agilis (non Olivier), Aud. = »  jflavimaculata, Riippell. 
Scincus schaeideri, Daud. = Eumeces schneideri |Daud.). 
»,  sepsoides, Aud. = Chalcides sepoides (Aud.). 
L’ Eryx de la Thébaide. = Eryz thebaicus, Reuss. 
Coulouvre, Suppl. pl. iv. fig. 4 (1813). = Zamenis dahlii (Fitz.). 
Coluber florulentus, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. = »  florulentus (Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil.). 
Coulouvre, Suppl. pl. iv. fig. 6 (1813). = >,  ravergiert (Ménétr.), var. nummifer, 
La Coulouvre aux raies paralléles, pl. viii. = diadema (Schl.). [ Reuss. 


figs. 1 & V. 


* Giornale delle Osservaz. fatte ne’ Viagei in Egitto &c. (1841-43) (posthumous). 
h2 


liy INTRODUCTION. 


Coulouwvre, Suppl. pl. iv. fig. 2 (1813). = Tarbophis savignyi, Blgr. 
es Suppl. pl. v. fig. 1 (1812). = 5 obtusus (Reuss). 

Coluber insignitus, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. = Celopeltis monspessulana (Hermann). 

3 35 pl. vil. fig. 6. = 99 moilensis (Reuss). 

»  eucullatus, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. = Macroprotodon cucullatus (Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil.). 
Vipere Haje, part., pl. vii. fig. 3. = Naja nigricollis, Reinh. 
Scythale pyramidum, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. = EHchis carinatus (Schn.). 
Rana esculenta (uon Linn.), Aud. = Rana mascareniensis, Dum. & Bibr. 
Hyla savignyi, Aud. = Hyla arborea, var. savignyi, Blgr. 


About 1829, Alexandre Lefébyre!, a zealous entomologist, one of the many Europeans 
who entered the service of Mohammed Ali, discovered the larva of a ‘Triton in the 
oasis of Baharieh. 

In 1834, Reuss? described many of the reptiles that had been collected by Riippell, 
and gave names to other species figured in the ‘ Description de Egypte.’ 

Riippell *, between 1835 and 1840, recorded Testudo sulcata=T. calcarata from 
Dongola, Sennaar, and Kordofan. 

In 1836, Duméril and Bibron 4 mentioned that the Paris Museum possessed specimens 
of Gymnodactylus scaber, Heyden, from Egypt, collected by Rtippell. 

In the following year, the same authors ° recorded the presence in Egypt of Uromastix 
ornatus, Heyden, the specimens having been obtained by M. Botta, a travelling natu- 
ralist in the employment of the Paris Museum ®. The type of this species is erroneously 
stated by Duméril and Bibron to have been found in North Africa, whereas Heyden 
was most explicit in mentioning that it was collected by Ruppell at Mohila, on the 
Arabian coast of the Red Sea. 

J. E. Gray’, in 1842, described as new a number of Egyptian reptiles presented to 
the British Museum; but all of them were referable to species already known. 

The only species of Glauconia as yet known to exist between the Mediterranean and 
Wadi Halfa was described by Duméril and Bibron, in 18445, from a specimen found 
at Cairo, preserved in the Strassburg Museum, and named by them Stenostoma cairi. 
In the same volume, they also pointed out the presence of Python sebew (Gmel.) in the 
region of the White Nile, where it was obtained by M. d’Arnaud °. 

> Gervais, Ann. Se. Nat. (2) 1836, p. 312. Lefébyre died at Sennaar in the commencement of 1840. 

7 Mus. Senck. i. 1834, * Neue Wirbelth. von Abyss. 1835-40, 

* Erpét. Gén, iii. 1836. ° Op. cit. iv. 1837. 

° It is quite possible that Duméril and Bibron may have used the term Egypt in a loose sense, and may 
have included the Sinaitic Peninsula, as it formed in their day a part of political Egypt. 

* Zool. Misc., March 1842, * Erpét. Gén. vi. 1844, 

° M. d’Arnaud, in 1838, was sent by Mohammed Ali to analyse the auriferous lands at Fazakol, and, 
in 1840, he went as a member of a scientific expedition to the Blue Nile, under the leadership of M. Selim, 
a Turkish officer of Marine. He made extensive collections of natural history objects, but on his return 


journey they were all lost at the Fourth Cataract, with the exception of that portion of them that had been 
forwarded by land. (Bull. Soc. Geogr.) 


ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. lv 


J. E. Gray 1, in 1845, recorded Agama colonorum (non Daud.), Gray,=A. spinosa, 
Gray, from Egypt, the specimens having been collected by Wilkinson and Burton. 

In the same year as Gray’s Catalogue appeared, Riippell published his Catalogue 
of the Reptiles in the Senckenbergian Museum at Frankfort 2, the species enumerated 
having been chiefly collected by himself. Among the vipers we have the first instance 
of the presence of Bitis arietans in Kordofan. 

A. Duméril ? (1851) recorded the presence of Sternothewrus adansonii (Schweigger) 
and Cryptopus senegalensis=Cyclanorbis senegalensis (D. & B.) in the White Nile, where 
they were collected by d’Arnaud; and the existence of Chameleon calyptratus, A. Dum., 
in the region of the Nile, whence it had been obtained by Botta. 

Rhachiodon abyssinicus, D. & B.,=Dasypeltis scabra (Linn.), was mentioned for the 
first time from the Nile Valley in 18544. The specimen was found by d’Arnaud on 
his expedition to the White Nile. 

Ulrich Jasper Seetzen®, the distinguished traveller, visited Lower Egypt and the 
Fayum, in 1809. He had apparently interested himself in the Reptilian and Batrachian 
fauna of the country, as the posthumous account of his travels that appeared, in 1855, 
mentions about ten species of snakes and two batrachians, chiefly under their native 
names, but unaccompanied by any exact description. 

Dr. Giinther ®, in 1858, enumerated seven species of snakes from Egypt, collected by 
Wilkinson and Burton, and a specimen of Psammophis schokari, Forskal, obtained by 
A. Lefebvre, but which he did not recognize as distinct from P. sibilans (Linn.). He 
likewise, in the same year’, recorded the presence of a new genus (Hemisus, Gthr.) 
of the Engystomatide in Kordofan—the H. sudanense (Steindach.). 

In 1860, Jan® figured a Glauconia from Sennaar under the name of Stenostoma 
macrorhynchum= G. macrorhynchus (Jan). 

Peters ° published, in 1862, a list of reptiles collected between Wadi Halfa and 
Sennaar by-Baron de Barnim and Dr. Hartmann and some others from “ Egypt.” The 
following were new to the Nile Valley :— 


Pelomedusa gehafie, Riippell. = Pelomedusa galeata (Schoepff). 
? Agama colonorum, Daud. — 
Agama savignyi, nou D. & B. = Agama hartmanni, Peters. 


Gerrhosaurus flavigularis, Wiegm. 
Lytorhynchus diadema, Dum. & Bibr. 


Crotaphopeltis rufescens, Boie. = Leptodira hotambeia (Laur.). 
Heterophis resimus, Peters. = Causus resimus (Peters). 
Cystognathus senegalensis, D. & B. = Cassina senegalensis (D. & B.). 

1 Cat. Liz. B.M. 1845. * Mus. Senck. iii. 1845. * Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851. 


+ Dum. & Bibr. vii. pl. i. ° Reisen durch Syrien, Pal. &c., 3 yols., 1853. * Cat. Col. Snakes B. M. 
* Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1858, p. 47. 

* Icon. Gén. 1 livr. Dec. 1860, pls. v. & vi. fig. 12; Arch. Zool., Anat. e Fisiol. i. 1862, p. 190. 

* Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271. 


lyi INTRODUCTION. 


Strauch 4, in his account of the Reptilian fauna of Algeria, recorded Seps chalcides, 
Bonap.= Chaleides tridactylus, Laur., as an Egyptian lizard, but the evidence as to the 
existence of this species in Egypt is as yet inconclusive. 

In 1863, Jan 2 indicated a snake as Coronella austriaca, Laur., var. egyptiaca, thus 
implying that it came from Egypt. This is, however, so extremely improbable that 
it must be attributed to an error of locality. 

In the same year, Peters * recorded the presence of Tropidonotus tessellatus (Laut.) 
in Egypt. 

Dr. Steindachner, in 18674, mentioned the occurrence of a frog in Kordofan, which 
he named Pyaicephalus cordofanus=Rana cordofana (Steindach.). 

The late Professor Cope described, in 1868 5a new chameleon from Nubia, which he 
named C. basiliscus. An example of this species from Egypt had been presented to 
the British Museum by James Burton between 1824-30, but Dr. Gray had regarded it 
as C. vulgaris. 

Peters, in 1869°, recognized that the Agamoid lizard from Dongola, which he had 
at first identified with Agama savignyi, D. & B., was a new species, and named it 
A. hartmanni. In the same year, he described a small gecko from Sennaar, under 
the name Gymnodactylus steudneri, Peters,=Tropiocolotes steudneri (Peters). 

The viper V. lebetina was stated by Strauch in 18697 to be represented in the Berlin 
Museum by an Egyptian specimen; but by the courtesy of Dr. Tornier Iam enabled 
to state that no such example is present at Berlin, where there is, however, a specimen 
labelled from North Africa. 

Gray §, in his short account of the few reptiles collected on Petherick’s journey, 
described a chameleon, which he named C. le@vigatus, Gray,=C. senegalensis, Daud., 
from 805 kilom. to the south of Khartum. 

Strauch °, in his monograph of the snakes of Russia, mentions Coronella austriaca, 
Laur., as an Egyptian snake on the erroneous statement made by Jan; and also Coluber 
quadrilineatus, Pallas=C. situla, Linn., on the authority of the ‘ List of Animals living 
in the Zoological Gardens, London’ ?°, His retention of Vipera ammodytes (Linn.) as 


a member of the fauna of Egypt rests solely on a statement by Pliny quoted by Solinus, 
who lived about a.p. 238. 


' Mem. Ac. St. Pétersb. vii. iv. no. 7 (1862). 

* Arch. Zool., Anat. e Fisiol. ti. 1863, fase. ii. p. 238. 

* Mon. Berl. Ak. 1863. 

* Reise Freg. Novara, Amph. 1867, p. 8. 

* Proc. Ac. Nat. Philad. 1868, p. 316. 

° Mon, Berl. Ak. 1869. 

* Mem. Ae. St. Pétersb. vii. xiv. 1869, no. 6. 

* Travels in Central Africa, &c., 1869, Append. vol. 11. 
Mém. Ac. St. Petersb. vii. xxi. no. 4 (1878). 

© 4th ed. 1866, p. 991. 


ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. lvii 


A few well-known species of Reptiles, and one Batrachian, were collected, in 1874, 
by Rohlfs and Acherson on their Expedition to the Libyan desert, and were enumerated 
by Peters! in the same year. 

Gasco, in the account of his journey to Egypt in company of his friend Panceri 2, 
gave a list of the Reptiles they collected, amounting in all to 48 species. He recorded 
the presence of Gymnodactylus flavipunctatus (Rippell)=Pristurus flavipunctatus, 
Rippell, in the Sudan, and added Vasypeltis scabra (Linn.) to the fauna of Egypt 
proper. He mentioned that he had obtained 7ropidosaurus algira, Fitz.,=Psammo- 
dromus algirus (Linn.), in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, and also Seps chalcides, 
Bonap.,=Chalcides tridactylus, Laur., in the vicinity of the same city. The presence, 
however, of these two species in the littoral of Egypt has yet to be verified by a 
competent herpetologist. 

C. B. Klunzinger *, in 1878, published a list of a few reptiles from Kosseir collected 
during his residence at that town, where he found that widely-distributed gecko 
Hemidactylus flaviviridis, Heyden. 

The presence of a Salamander in the neighbourhood of Alexandria was pointed out 
in 1882, by Mr. G. A. Boulenger* on the authority of M. Lataste, who received some 
larve from the collection of the late M. Letourneux, said to have been obtained 
in the foregoing locality. 

The late Dr. F. Miiller®, of Basel, recorded, in 1882, the presence of Rana esculenta, 
Linn., in Egypt. 

The small snake Oligodon melanocephalus (Jan), found in Syria and in the Sinaitic 
Peninsula, was received, in 1885, from Cairo by Dr. F. Miiller of Basel °. 

‘ Sitzungsber. Ges. naturf. Freunde, 1874, p. 66. As so little is known of the Libyan desert, and as the 
species collected by Rohlfs and Acherson serve to throw some light on the character of its fauna, they are 
here enumerated, with the localities in which they were found, and to them I have added Celopeltis monspes- 


sulana (Hermann), incidentally mentioned by Roblfs in his work entitled ‘ Drei Monate in der libyschen 
Wiiste,’ p. 169 :— 

Stenodactylus guttatus, Cuv. Desert, Marak. = Stenodactylus elegans (Fitz.). 

Agama sinaita, Heyden. Ain-Amur, Khbargeh. =? Agama sinaita, Heyden. 


Acanthodactylus savignyi, D. & B. Desert between | 


=9 / ranTRGsS (ALA 
Rah PRIDE ? Acanthodactylus pardalis (Licht.). 


Acanthodactylus boskianus (Daud.). Ditto. 

Monitor (Psammosaurus) griseus (Daud.). Dakhel. = Varanus griseus (Daud.). 

Scincus officinalis, Laur. Dakhel. 

Gongylus ocellatus, Forsk. Khargeh. = Chaleides ocellatus (Forsk.). 
Ceelopeltis insignitus. Regenfeld. = Celopeltis monspessulona (Herm.). 
Vipera cornuta, L. Dakhel. = Cerastes cornutus (Hasselq. & Linn.). 
Bufo viridis, Laur. 5 


* Viaggio in Hgitto, 1876, pt. ii. 
* Zeitsch. Ges. Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878. “ Cat. Batr. Grad. B. M. 1882, p. 106. 
* Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, p. 129. * Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1885, p. 678. 


lvili - INTRODUCTION. 


Mr. Boulenger, in 1887 1, mentioned incidentally that Professor Strauch had informed 
him that Scincus fasciatus=Scincopus fasciatus, Peters, occurred at Khartum. 

Strauch 2, in his memoir of the Geckonide, described a new genus from Egypt 
which he named Bunopus, and designated the species B. blanfordit. 

Lataste, in 1887, recognized a new genus of Elapine snake in a specimen that had 
been forwarded to him from Cairo by Dr. Walter Innes, who had purchased it from a 
snake-catcher, along with one or two other examples of the same serpent. This new 
genus he named Walterinnesia after its discoverer, and called the species egyptia on 
the assumption that it was an Egyptian snake. 

Mr. Boulenger, in 1892%, described a new snake from Sennaar which had been 
regarded by Miiller, of Basel, as a variety of Eryx jaculus (Hasselq. & Linn.), and 
named it Gongylophis muellert, Blgr.,= Eryx muelleri, Blgr. 

The same author* recorded Zamenis rhodorhachis, Jan, as an Egyptian species, one 
of the specimens in the British Museum having been obtained from Egypt so long 
ago as Wilkinson’s day. In the same volume in which the foregoing species appeared, 
Lytorhynchus diadema (Dum. & Bibr.) also occurs as a snake found in Lower Egypt, 
the specimens having been obtained by me at Gizeh and Abu Roash. 

In 1893 5, I described a species of Zamenis from Lower Egypt under the name of 
Z. rogersi, and, on the same occasion, indicated a new species of toad, Bufo pentoni, 
from the Suakin district. 

The second report on the additions to the collection of lizards in the British 
Museum by Mr. Boulenger was published in 1894°% In it one species new to the 
fauna of the Nile Valley in Lower Egypt is mentioned, viz. Tropiocolotes tripolitanus, 
Peters, the specimens recorded having been found by me at Gizeh. Another species 
new to the fauna of North-east Africa is also recorded, viz. Chalcides delishi, Lataste, 
which I found to be common at Suakin. 

In a preliminary list of the Reptiles and Batrachians of Egypt published in 1896 ‘, 
the following lizards were added to the fauna of Suakin, viz. Tarentola ephippiata, 
O’Shaughn., Latastia longicaudata (Reuss), Eremias mucronata (Blanf.), and Chame- 
leon basiliscus, Cope; whilst the presence of the last named in the Delta of the Nile 
Valley, along with C. vulgaris (Linn.), was established. In the same list, Testudo cbera, 
Pallas, was indicated as being possibly present in the Sudan. 


1 Cat. Jiz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 390. * Mem. Ac. St. Pétersb. vil. xxxy. no. 2 (1857). 
> Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) ix. 1892, p. 74. “ Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893. 
* Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) xii. Dec. 1893. ° Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, 


* Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, 


SYSTEMATIC 


TINIE) ON CONAN WS. 


REPTILIA. 
Order I. EMYDOSAURIA. 
Fam. I. CROCODILIDA. 


Page 
il, Crrogoakilns, Jets oocosovsdnceunsGs000 
Il, MIOMENE, AMI oo00000000000000 > Io 
Order II. CHELONIA. 
Suborder THECOPHORA. 
Fam. I. TESTUDINIDA. 
Die Mest dos eicniseccesveratecctemtarsiavcr sieves ons 28 
I, Nanda; COOFOEP oo606000000000000 28 
Fam. Il. TRIONYCHIDZ. 
Ilo AMOR, COiP0000bcHb00000000b00000 32 
1. triunguis (Forskdl) .........+.... 32 
Order III. SQUAMATA. 
Suborder I. LACERTILIA. 
Fam. I. GECKONID, 
il, Sramoukvomlms, JOG soceo0080000000000 35 
il, Glesems, JHE cbecoccxc0K00bb0 0000 42 
B, josie, AWC oocosconcvccc000 60 45 
2, Ubu MOCO OWE, JAAS 5a 00c0000000000000 47 
i tripolitanus, Peters). )-.-+ 9. -- - 47 
Qesteudnerit (eters) ssc cece de ae 48 
Bi IAIN ONS, Jif ocoocsnoacacso0de0s 50 
i. blantordi, Strauch .......-.....- 50 
4. Gymnodactylus, Spia ................ 54 
I, sealuarUZ@uED) sococodooocaog0n 54 
Da PristhuTusy Lwppelliy. cia). )elel\scee) ele) ol 56 
1. flavipunctatus, Ritppell............ 56 


Page 

6. Ptyodactylus (Cuv.), Gray.............. 60 
1. hasselquistii (Donndorf?) .......... 62 
Var. oudrii (Latuste) ..........-- 68 

Var. ragazzi, Anders. ............ 69 

“if Vlenmalyety ls, Cit 1000000000000000000 77 
1. flaviviridis, Riippell .............. OO 

PL WHOS) (VAIO) oocegnnc0s0000000 80 
Var. sinaita (Bigr.) ...........- 83 

Sl, WMO, CR) >oo0e000s000b000n00000 86 
il, apie (We) coce0000800000 86 

2. ephippiata, O'Shaughn........+.+-- 88 


3. annularis (Js. Geoffr. St.-Hil.) ...... 89 


Fam. Il. AGAMIDA. 


Il, Aen, Dimi oobocc0sean80000000000 92 
1. mutabilis, Merrem ............-- 94 
DB, jolie, JHA Go0000000000000000 100 
Bh Gave. JCD oo 00b00%¢000000000 106 
4, flavimaculata, Riippell ............ 110 
5. spinosa, Gray............5--- +e 114 
Gaphartmanmniee letersi ercnaeeilenyerenelnen: 119 
To SOM CARD) coccosncocd00cupcs 122 
OD, Wiromnnsine<, WORD sooccG00d0 0600000 126 
1, Wels, JAAN oo cach oooagenb0000 127 
Py OHANWS, Je(AWAecocc0ccb0G0s80060 128 
3. egyptius (Hasselg. § Linn.) ........ 129 
4, acanthinurus, Bell .............- 131 
Fam. II]. VARANIDZ. 
Ile Wermimne, GRR ocaencacccacsoudo0Ke 133 
I, Ganteng (UDA) oc5ccso0cc00 005006 134 
2. ocellatus, Heyden ...........----- 138 
3. niloticus (Hasselq. §' Linn.) ........ 140 


Ix SYSTEMATIC TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Fam. IV. LACERTID. 


Page 

ISLC R se rego ooda banded SodcuanS 143 
1, longicaudata (Reuss) .............- 143 

2. Acanthodactylus, Wiegm............... 147 
Il, |nosliatmme: C2eatth)\.o50000000¢000000 148 

2, peal, CHM) 5000000000000000 151 

3. scutellatus|((Aud:))...22.----...0.. 161 

Sh IEMA, WAH coooccoocD0090GuDDDO 169 
1. mucronata (Blanf.) ............-. 169 

PX, farinallyiy (ULdaim) cooos50050000000 174 

3. rubropunctata (Licht.) ........++.. 183 

Fam. V. SCINCIDZ. 

Il, Wiblonie, J8025 6 a6 coao0c80ag000 00000006 187 
1. quinqueteeniata (Licht.) .......... 187 

2, WAU (CHAE) coaocaccn0ce000000 193 

2, IWiwAeCHS, VWVOGPs odo0ecccssn000000000 196 
lemschneiderin (acd) ieerraierae erin 196 

Bh OMG NIE JAAR coobesove00000000000 200 
Il, TAREE, JAAS 5 occ po 00 00000000 201 
AMISCINCUS PU GUT ner ieter are tooter 204 
Il, OuommAllig, ILS paocoacoda0c0000 205 

5}, Olnnltoidles, Umum, sac0ca00na0aaGc00000 208 
1. ocellatus (Morsk@l) ...........45. 210 

2. sepoides)| (CAud.) iiss lief eine (220 

3. delislii (Lataste)...........+...... 2238 

Suborder Il. RHIPTOGLOSSA. 
Fam. 1. CHAMASLEONTIDZ. 

il, Chameleon, Jai, soooncccvsoso00000 Lae 
ll, Gules, Ded, oococcscocs0 bc vce 2S) 

2. calyptratus, A. Dum. ............ 228 

Sy MEWS, ClRG cocoodoacc000n0G00 230 

Suborder III. OPHIDIA. 
Fam. 1. GLAUCONIID&. 
il, Glimcont, CRO cacscoossosecosoc00c Aa 
ile (Gabel CDoipa GP EWU) g0cdde 00000006 2338 
Fam. Il. BOID. 
Subfam. I. Boinx. 

Is Wines JIG oeooogdd5000ddddano000KC 236 
ls WoeNOIe, JAE coocoostunbed00e 236 

2. jaculus (Hasselq. 5 Linn.) . 240 


Fam. ITI]. COLUBRID. 
Series A. Aglypha. 


Subfam. I. Coruprin2. 


Page 
1. Tropidonotus, Kuhl ..............+..- 245 
1. tessellatus (Laur.)..........008- .. 246 
M, eyes, VVEGUGP 0000 0000000000000000 248 
1. gemonensis (Lawr.) ......+-.00055 248 
2, Calalliin, (HZ) soocccoabonaccececcd Zl) 
Bh MACClOANINS, MAD ogcoascadovc000n 252 
GL, oes, CF ooosacaneddoadaGcd 254 
5. florulentus (Is. Geoff. St.-Hil.) .... 266 
6. ravergieri (M/énétr.), var. nummifer 
(CERES) soocoocdonccc000000000 260 
7. diadema (Schlegel) .......-...0000- 267 
3. Lytorhynchus, Peters ...........0045-- 271 
1. diadema (Dum. 5; Bibr.) .......... 271 
AS Coluberslinn- once recteicreeralte 274 
il, Gil, JAG, cococnc0900000000000 274 
5, Ollicgoilayn, BOE ooasievascvndc0dcc0000¢ 277 
1. melanocephalus (Jan) ...........- 277 
Subfam. II. RuacHroponrin &. 
6. Dasypeltis, Wagler ................-- 278 
ily SCA CAMMs)) ooocoosov0c%00na00 278 
Series B. Opisthoglypha. 
Subfam. III. DirsapomorPHina. 
%. Warbophis, Mleischm. 5.2... +02 ve 281 
il, Goimlemya, Tihs cosocoscccos0000ns AY 
22, OOUMUGNS (CHAISS)) 500660000008000000 283 
85) Coelopeltiss Wag ler ya mmtalectee rely rielrl= 288 
1. monspessulana (Hermann) ........ 288 
2. moilensis (Meuss) ......-......... 292 
Gh, LATO NI, JED oo GoccoDbdDOObODOE 295 
1. schokari (Morsk@l) ................ 295 
PD, Hoyplkins CL) oovnc0cdco00000000 302 
10. Macroprotodon, Gwich. .......+...05 308 
1. cucullatus (Js. Geoff. St.-Hil.) ...... 308 
Series C. Proteroglypha. 
Subfam. IV. Exapina. 
Til, ING» Joa 30000000000006000000000¢ 312 
1. haje(Hasselg: dy Inun.) - 2.2... 312 
2. nigricollis, Reinhardt .......+..4- 322 
12. Walterinnesia, Lataste ................ 324 
1. wepyptia, Lataste ............--.. 324 


SYSTEMATIC TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1x1 


Fam. IV. VIPERID. Series B. Arcifera. 
Subfain. I. Virprine. Fam. Il. BUFONID. 
Page Page 
1. Cerastes, Wagler «0.0.1.2. 2-0 eevee 326 I Bato; Laun. sae. one eee eee eee 350 
1. vipera (Hasselg. f& Linn.) .......... 327 UG vitidiswiilcuic eee eee ee 350 
2. cornutus (Hasselg. § Linn.) ...... 330 Ay IRE aMIEMTS IBS o.oo 0000000000n0000 353 
Me, INOW GRAD odoodsopsasooouoason0es 336 Be panko, Ads coacoacccacencer 355 
1. carinatus (Schneider).............. 336 


Fam. III. HYLIDA. 
HRTIERGELUD, ilnel s yl EN! Ohi eeeeioioercieemnicepiciad crciecs a aclon 3 


5 
Order I. ELAUDATA. 1. arborea, Linn., var. savignyi, Blgr. .. 357 


Suborder I. PHANEROGLOSSA. 
Series A. Firmisternia. 


Fam. I. RANID. Order II. CAUDATA. 
PRAT APES UI Tansy ye neieReeneterolia auaier sresetchleGcvers 345 Fam. I. SALAMANDRIDA. 
Il, Goulet, JEAPoo 6600 000000000000 345 


Species ignote. 


2. mascareniensis, Dum. g Bibr. ...... 346 


iz 


By an unfortunate oversight I omitted to state, in the Preface, that all the 
Plates of this Volume have been printed by Messrs. Mintern Brothers, The 


excellence of their work is attested by the Plates themselves. 


Insert between pages Ixii & 1xiii, 


Ixiii 


ESTO PR ANIDE}S: 


CROCODILUS NILOTICUS ...........- 
TESTUDO LEITHII 


UPTON YG TRIUNGUISH eerie ier 
STENODACTYLUS ELEGANS .......... 
STENODACTYLUS PETRII ............ 
TROPIOCOLOTES STEUDNERI.......... 
TROPIOCOLOTES TRIPOLITANUS ...... 
PRISTURUS FLAVIPUNCTATUS .. ..... 
GYMNODACTYLUS SCABER .......... 
HEMIDACTYLUS TURCICUS .......... 
HEMIDACTYLUS TURCICUS, var. SINAITA. 


HEMIDACTYLUS FLAVIVIRIDIS 


PryopactyLus HASSELQUISTII . a0 
PryopacTyLus HASSELQUISTIIT ...... 
PryopacryLus HASSELQUISTII, var. 
OUD ERT re ih--halloteien-rorera a weet eee 
Pryopacryius HASSELQUISTII, var. 
LYMEUWHAL oooo09ag0000 sie) ele elie) = sees 


TARENTOLA MAURITANICA .......... 


TARENTOLA ANNULARIS ............ 
AGAMA MUTABILIS .......... 


VAI CUAINUAG STINVAVTVAY Fey Ey ietsitco\/e¥si(etepecsiey cust 


Plate I. 

Plate IT. 
Plate III. 
Plate IV. 


” ” 
0 ” 
” ” 
9 ” 
Plate V. 
re) ” 
9 ” 


” ” 


Plate VI. 
Plate VII. 


” ” 


” 2” 


Plate VIII. 


thy ” 


Plate IX. 


Plate X. 


” ” 


Plate XI. 


URoMASTIX OCELLATUS.......... Plate XII. 
UROMASTIX ORNATUS .......... Plate XIII. 
UROMASTIX HZGYPTIUS ...... .... Plate XIV. 
UROMASTIX ACANTHINURUS ...... Plate XV. 
VARANUS GRISEUS........ alse Plate XV1. 
VARANUS OCELLATUS ....... ... Plate XVII. 
VARANUS NILOTICUS ...... ...... Plate XVIII. 
LATASTIA LONGICAUDATA ........ Plate XIX. 
ACANTHODACTYLUS BOSKIANUS.... Plate XX. 


ACANTHODACTYLUS PARDALIS .... Plate XXI. 


ACANTHODACTYLUS SCUTELLATUS.. Plate XXII. 
EREMIAS MUCRONATA .......... Plate XXIII. 


EREMIAS GUTTULATA...........2 99 5 


EREMIAS RUBROPUNCTATA ...... 


” ” 


MABUIA QUINQUETENIATA ...... Plate XXIV. 


WONTON AUN Soogooeasoucde | a 35 
EUMECES SCHNEIDERI .......... Plate XXV. 


SCINCOPUS FASCIATUS Plate XX VI. 


SCINCUS OFFICINALIS .......... Plate XXVII. 
CHALCIDES OCELLATUS .......... Plate XX VIII. 
CHALCIDES SEPOIDES............ 3 
CHALCIDES DELISLIT........ Den Te 
CHAMELEON VULGARIS.......... Plate XXIX. 


CHAMZLEON CALYPTRATUS ...... Plate XXX. 


lxiv 


Plate XX XI. 
Plate XXXII. 


CHAMELEON BASILISCUS 


GLAUCONIA CATRI....... 


ERyx THEBAICUS 


noOovOoooO OOO ” ” 


Eryx JacuLus Plate XX XIII. 


JBAL GINO SoouosobocKose Plate XXXIIT. A. 


TROPIDONOTUS TESSELLATUS.... Plate XXXIV. 


OLIGODON MELANOCEPHALUS .. op op 
DASYPELTIS SCABRA ........-- % 
TARBOPHIS'OBLRUSUS).........- a aa 
MACROPROTODON CUCULLATUS.. ,, on 


YZAMENIS RHODORHACHIS ...... Plate XXXYV. 


ZAMENIS ROGERSI .....---.--- Plate XXXVI. 


ZAMENIS FLORULENTUS........ Plate XX XVII. 


ZAMENIS RAVERGIERI, var. NUM- 


MIFHR .....- penteon eters 30 
LyYTORHYNCHUS DIADEMA ...... fy 5 
C@LOPELTIS MONSPESSULANA .. 4, es 


? COLUBER JUGULARIS ....... . Plate XXXVII.A. 


LIST OF PLATES. 


COLUBER SITULA 
ZAMENIS DIADBMA .......... 
DASYPELTIS SOCABRA......... 5 
C@LOPELVIS MOILENSIS 


PSAMMOPHIS SCHOKARI 


PsAMMOPHIS SCHOKARI 


PSAMMOPHIS SIBILANS ........ 


WALTERINNESIA HGYPTIA .... 
CERASTES VIPBRA.......-.... 
CBRASTES CORNUTUS ........ 
EcHIS CARINATUS...........- 
RANA MASCARENIENSIS 
Buro VIRIDIS 


BUFO REGULARIS) 5....0..+.0- 


BUFO PENTONI ....... flere 


Plate XXXVII.A. 
Plate XX XVIII. 
Plate XXXIX. 
Plate XL. 

Plate XLI. 
Plate XLII. 
Plate XLIII. 
Plate XLIV. 
Plate XLV. 
Plate XLVI. 
Plate XLVII. 
Plate XLVILI. 
Plate XLIX. 


Plate L. 


” ths 


” 2 


Figure 1. 


+ © 
Figure 2. 


Figure 3. 


Figure 4. 


7 ra A 
Figure 5. 


Figure 6. 


Figure 7. 


Ixv 


Se OE DIU Sa RATIONS TN TENT: 


Stenodactylus elegans, Fitz. Q. 
One of the types of Ascalabotes 


sthenodactylus, Licht. ...... Page 37 
Stenodactylus elegans, Fitz. 

S. mauritanicus, Guichenot . Page 40 
Stenodactylus elegans, Fitz. Page 44 
Bunopus blanfordii, Strauch. 

One of the types ........ Page 52 
Tarentola ephipprata, 

OMOMEAIN, oo soccce000006 Page 88 
Agama pallida, Reuss ...... Page 101 
Agama stellio, Linn. ........ Page 128 


Figure 8. 


Figure 9. 
Figure 10. 
Figure 11. 
Figure 12. 


Figure 18. 


Figure 14. 


Chameleon calyptratus, A. Dum. 


One of the types........ 
Glauconia cairi (D.& B.). x9 


Zamenis dahlit (¥itz.) 


Tarbophis savignyt, Blgr. 
Coluber sibilans, Linn. Type. 
Toad in blue glazed earthen- 


ware (? Bufo regularis). 


Ruins of Kahin 


Hyla savignyi, Aud. 


Page 229 
Page 234 
Page 251 


Page 282 


Page 306 


Page 356 


Page 358 


i 


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Reese EIA: 
EMYDOSAURIA. 
CROCODILID. 


CROCODILUS. 
Crocodilus, part., Laur. Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 53. 


Tue crocodile of the Nile’ has formed the subject of elaborate memoirs by E. Geoffroy 
St.-Hilaire 2 and Cuvier*®; but as the former authority believed in the existence of five 
species of crocodiles in the Nile, it is necessary to examine the evidence he adduced in 
support of this view. 


* The Nile crocodile was described, so long ago as 1699, by Oligerus Jacobeeus, as Crocodilus niloticus (vide 
Mus. Reg. Hfn. 1699, pars prima, p. 8, tab. viii. fig. vi.). Seba (Thes. i., 17384) devoted three plates to 
crocodiles, and on plate 105 figured two crocodiles, viz. figs. 3 & 4. The first of these he named Crocodilus 
aquaticus, ceilonicus; mas.; and the second Crocodilus ceilonicus, superius; femina. Laurenti (Syn. Rept. 
1768, p. 58) quotes these two figures as illustrating a species which he called Crocodylus niloticus, and closes 
his description of it with the words “ Habitat in India orientali, et Agypto.” The characters assigned by 
Laurenti to this crocodile are so general as to be equally applicable to C. palustris and C. porosus, doubtless 
for the cogent reason that he regarded the crocodiles of Ceylon and of the Nile as specifically identical. I 
propose to follow Mr. Boulenger, whose labours mark an epoch in the history of herpetology, and to retain 
C. niloticus for the crocodile of the Nile, as it has priority to Cuvier’s term C’. vulgaris and is in every way 
more definite and appropriate. ee 

* Ann. Mus. ii. 1803, p. 37, pl. xxxvii. fig. 2; id. op. x. 1807, p. 82, pl. iii. figs. 1-4; Deser. de Egypte, 
Hist. Nat. i. (? 1827) p. 185, pl. ii. 

* Ann. Mus. x. 1807, p. 40, pl. i. figs. 5 & 12, pl. ii. fig. 7; Oss. Foss. iv. 1812, pt. v. p. 33. 

B 


bo 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Among the many classical authors who have described the crocodile of the Nile, 
Herodotus’ hoids the front rank. He informs us that it was known to the ancient 
Egyptians as Champse,a name which survives in the Coptish amsah, or, with the 
masculine article P prefixed, P-amsah?, and in the Arabic ~L..3—Timsah, all of 
which have a common origin in emsuh, signifying “ from the egg.” 

Strabo ® relates that 100 stadia above the Labyrinth the traveller comes to the city of 
Arsinoe or Crocodilopolis, so called because the crocodile was held in high veneration 
by the inhabitants, who kept one alive in a lake and called it covyoc. ‘This term, as 
opposed to yaya, was supposed by E. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire to signify the existence of 
two species in the Nile; and so firmly convinced was he of their existence, that he 
described them under the names C. vulgaris and C. suchus. 

Strabo has given a graphic account of his visit to the tame crocodile of the nome of 
Arsinoe. He was accompanied by his host, who went provided with some cake, roast 
beef, and wine ; and on reaching the lake they found the crocodile lying on the bank, 
and so docile was it, that the attendant priests opened its mouth, into which they 
placed the cake and meat, and afterwards poured the wine. Geoffroy held that 
crocodiles manifesting this mild disposition were specifically distinct from another 
species distinguished by its savage nature, and that the sacred crocodiles were always 
selected from the former. He quoted, in suppert of this view, a statement made by 
Damascius*, in his life of Isidore, to the effect that ‘the suchis is righteous or just ; 
this is a name of a species of crocodile. It hurts no animal.” 

Cuvier has pointed out that neither Herodotus, Aristotle, Deodorus, Pliny, nor Alian 
had any idea of two different kinds of crocodile existing in the Nile, and that the 
mildness of character of the sacred individuals, as pointed out by Aristotle and other 
classical authors, only illustrates the fact that no animal is so savage that it cannot be 
tamed by man, if his treatment of it is gentle, and if he supplies it with abundance of 
food. The destructive C. palustris of Indian rivers when similarly treated becomes so 
iame that it can be fed by hand, and so trustful of man that the priests at the hot 
springs of Pir Manglo, 6 or 7 miles from Karachi, even paint its forehead ®. 

A careful consideration of all that has been handed down by the ancients regarding 


* Herod. ii.69. Herodotus also states that xpuxddecAos was a word of great antiquity and of Ionian origin. 
it was applied by lonians in Egypt to the crocodile because in this animal they saw a resemblance to the 
large lizards of their own hedgerows. 

Etymologists hold that kpoxddecdvs is a compound word. ‘They are at one that the second element dex\ds 
signifies “ fearful or timid”: but some bold that the first portion of the word is xpoxos, saffron ; while others 
maintain that it is xpd«n, the sea-shore or a bank. Gesner favoured the first explanation, but Bochart 
regarded both derivations as ridiculous. 

* Jablonski, Pantheon Agyptorum. Frankfurt, 1750. 8yo. Pt. iii. p- 70. 

* Geogr. Bk. xvii. vol. v. p. 411. Paris, 1819. to. 

‘ Photii Bibliotheca, ed. Hoeschelii, 1653, p. 1048. 

* A. I. Adams, ‘ Wanderings of a Naturalist in India,’ 1867, p. 43. 


CROCODILUS. 5 


the sacred crocodile of the Nile led Cuvier to dissent from Geoffroy St.-Hilaire’s 
opinion that the term suwchus meant a distinct species, and to conclude that it was 
merely the name applied to individuals of the Nile crocodile set apart as sacred, and, 
as pointed out by Champollion! the younger, codyos is the very name of the crocodile 
God, Sebak or Souk. 

Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, during his twenty-three days’ residence at Thebes, now close 
on a century ago, chiefly occupied himself in searching for and preserving as many 
mummies of animals as he could find, and skeletons of those species still living in 
Egypt, his object being, by a comparison of the mummified and recent skeletons, to 
throw, if possible, some light on a question much debated in his day, viz. whether 
species degenerate, or acquire characters in perpetuity, in a country like Egypt that has 
been the subject of great physical changes; but he does not appear to have arrived at 
any definite results on this interesting question taken as a whole. 

The skull of a mummified crocodile obtained by him at Thebes appeared, however, 
to him to differ from the skull of a recent Nile crocodile in being narrower and more 
elongate, in the cheek-bones being proportionally further apart, and in the openings of 
the orbital cavities being much wider. ‘These differences he considered indicated a 
distinct species ; and he states that a fisherman at Luxor told him that there were three 
species of crocodile in the Nile, viz. one coloured green, another brownish red, and 
a third black. The novelty, however, of his surroundings in the Thebaid and the 
fascination of its monuments so interrupted Geoffroy’s zoological work, that he was 
unable, he tells us, to verify this statement made by the fisherman; but every one 
who has had to deal with ignorant fishermen knows how little, if any, reliance can be 
placed on their judgment in such matters. Geoffroy says that he would not have 
ventured to establish the species merely cn a mummy’s skull, as he was aware that the 
difference he observed might ultimately prove to be individual or characteristic of a 
particular age. He had, however, another skull exactly like that of the mummy, and 
he had, moreover, observed another similarly shaped skull in what he calls ‘“ our 
collections.” 

Geoffroy was well aware of the remarkable changes that take place in the form of 
the skulls of crocodiles as they increase in age, and was thus quite alive to the danger 
attending the selection of the relative length of the skull to the body as a specific 
distinction, but at the same time he does not appear to have recognized them in their 
full extent. In the semi-adult condition the lower jaw partakes of the elongated form 
of the anterior part of the skull, but in mature age it assumes a massive character 
in keeping with the rest of the skull. In the skull of the type of C. suchus, which 
only measured 95 millim. in length, the lower jaw was long and slender, in keeping 
with its youth. Geoffroy, however, held that this supposed species did not exceed 5 ft. 


1 Panthéon Egyptien. Paris, 1823-5. 4to. No. 22. 
syP 


B2 


4 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


in length, and he believed that the mildness of disposition attributed to the suchus by 
Damascius ! was really the outcome of its weak jaws. 

Geoffroy makes no mention of the differences in the form of the head of the two 
sexes, except in one passage, in which he says that his guides assured him that they 
could distinguish the sexes by their heads, and even by the impress left by them on 
the sands, as the head of the male was heavier and broader than that of the female. 
These characters are well marked, and not only has the male crocodile a heavier and 
broader head as a whole than the female, but the snout also is broader and less 
elongate. 

The characters which he supposed distinguished C. suchus from C. niloticus were, 
that the former had its nasal bones forming a gentle eminence throughout their length, 
that they were proportionally narrower than in C. niloticus, that a groove lay along 
their external borders, and that the upper surface of the head was smooth, while in 
C. mloticus it was rugose. All of these characters, however, when a large series of 
skulls is examined, are to be explained either by sex, difference of age, or individual 
peculiarity. He recognized that, in the form of its scales generally, C. suchus was 
closely allied to C. niloticus, and that the colours in the two were much the same, but 
he held that in C. swchus the nuchals were always longer than broad. The nuchals, 
however, of the crocodile of the Nile vary considerably in their length, breadth, and 
distribution, so that no importance can be attached to the trivial variation indicated 
by Geoffroy. Another feature in which Geoffroy says C. suchus differed from 
C. niloticus was the greater length of its tail. In connection with this it is interesting 
to find that John Antes?, who was resident in Egypt from 1770 to 1782, wrote as 
follows :—‘I observed two sorts of crocodiles, though I question whether the difference 
did not consist in the sex only. The one is, in proportion of its thickness, rather 
longer than the other, but it consists more in the tail.”? Geoffroy, however, thought 
that John Antes’s observation favoured his view as to the presence of two species of 
crocodiles. 

Cuvier regarded Geoffroy’s C. suchus as possibly a variety of the Nile crocodile, on 
the ground that its head was more flattened and more elongate than that of C. niloticus, 
and because he had two entire individuals the heads of which presented the same 
characters. Besides the differences in the form of the head, the specimens referred to 
the variety were also said by Cuvier to be distinguished by their colours. On these 
grounds, and from the circumstance that Geoffroy had been told by the fisherman of the 


* Damascius lived in the 6th century, long after the cult of the crocodile had become extinct, so that 
anything he has to say on the subject was derived from tradition, and, moreover, he was ignorant and 
credulous. 

* Obsery. on the Manners and Customs of the Egyptians (1800, 4to), p. 83. 

* He further remarks: “ of this sort were all those which I have seen in the museums of Florence, London, 
aud some other towns in Hurope.” 


CROCODILUS. 5 


Thebaid that there were more than one species of crocodile in the Nile, Cuvier held 
that, if not a species, at least it was possibly a variety; but he hesitated to give a 
decided opinion, because before doing so he wished to follow it in its different ages. 
There is no evidence, however, that the sexes of the specimens referred to the variety 
had been determined; and as Cuvier makes no mention of the differences in the shape 
of the head of the male and female crocodile, it is possible, nay probable, that the 
specimens with the narrower and more elongated heads were females. At the same 
time, a variety of the common crocodile may exist, but no material that has as yet come 
under my observation seems to sanction such a supposition. Sir J. G. Wilkinson }, on 
the other hand, held that there were two species, but the specimens presented by him 
to the British Museum certainly represent only one. The information he recorded 
regarding them is so meagre as to be worthless in a question of this kind. He says, 
“though the scales serve to indicate the two species known in the Nile, they differ 
very little in their position; and the black and green colour of the two crocodiles is a 
more evident distinction.” 

Sir Samuel Baker? is also very explicit regarding the existence of two kinds of 
crocodiles. He says: “I have noticed two species of crocodiles throughout all the 
rivers of Abyssinia and in the White Nile. One of these is of a dark brown colour, 
and much shorter and thicker in proportion than the other, which grows to an immense 
length, and is generally of a pale greenish yellow. The Arabs assert that the dark- 
coloured thick-bodied species is more dreaded than the other.” Unfortunately neither 
Wilkinson nor Baker were trained naturalists, so that their opinion on this question 
does not carry much weight, and, moreover, the bare statement that two exist throws 
no light on the question whether C. suchus, Geoffroy, is in reality a species. 

Subsequently Geoffroy ? figured the skull of the type of C. suchus, natural size. The 
drawing represents a skull 95 millim. in length. A crocodile in the British Museum, 
having a skull of similar dimensions, has a total length from the tip of the snout to the 
extremity of the tail of 678 millim.; so that the type of C. suwchus was probably about 
the same size, for, as pointed out by Geoffroy, the length ofa crocodile skull is 7 of the 
total length of the animal. At such an early age it is impossible to determine the sex 
of a crocodile by the characters of the cranium ; and as the type was a mummy, we are 
in complete ignorance on this point. 

We obtain some further information regarding the materials which served Geoffroy 
St.-Hilaire for the establishment of the species in the account given of it in the 
‘Description de Egypte,’ which he tells us was written 20 years after his memoir 
had appeared in the ‘ Annales du Muséum,’ published in 1807. In the former work 


1 Rawlinson’s Herod. ii. p. 115; Genl. View of Egypt, 1835, p. 225, note; The Ancient Egyptians, ii. 
1878, p. 133. 

* The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, 1867, p. 96. 

* Ann. Mus. x. 1807, pl. iii. figs. 1 to 4. 


6 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


we are informed that a specimen in the Paris Museum measured | m. 280 millim. 
long, and that it had been brought by Adanson from Senegal, and that it bore in his 
handwriting “ Crocodile du vert,” and that a second specimen 1 m. 190 millim. long 
also existed in the same museum. This specimen was undoubtedly from the Nile, 
and had been presented to the Paris Museum by the son of M. Thédenat-Duvant, 
Vice-Consul at Alexandria. The small size of the crocodiles suggests that they were 
young; but Geoffroy held that they were adult ; and in support of this he reverts to a 
passage of his in the ‘ Annales du Muséum’ of 1807, in which he stated that he believed 
that C. suchus attained only to about five feet in length, being led to that conclusion 
by a skull nine inches long, which he says had its sutures nearly effaced, a condition 
which Geoffroy states generally takes place only in adult crocodiles and at a certain 
age. He quoted the passage in question, as the specimen itself was no longer at his 
disposal. 

In the British Museum there is a mummified crocodile, about 15 feet long, from 
Kom Ombos, one of the seats of its worship; and the recent researches of Professor 
Petrie! in the Labyrinth in the Fayum have brought to light mummified crocodiles, 
varying from infants up to 15 feet in length; and the occurrence in other parts of 
Egypt of mummies of similar dimensions conclusively proves that the ancient 
Egyptians made no distinction between small and large crocodiles, and that all were 
equally sacred to them. ‘This disposes of Geoffroy St.-Hilaire’s contention that the 
sacred crocodile did not attain to a greater length than five feet. 

With regard to the supposed obliteration of the sutures of the foregoing skull, it is 
important to bear in mind that the condition was abnormal, if anchylosis of the sutures 
was in reality present, because persistence of the sutures of both skull and skeleton 
throughout life is the normal condition not only among the Emydosauria, but among 
the Reptilia generally, and that the sutures are more markedly visible in the adult 
than in the young and half-grown individuals. 

Professor Owen 2, in 1850, figured the skull ? of a mummified crocodile from Egypt, 
under the name of C. suchus, but he truly says “there is no good specific character 
which distinguishes them (the mummified crocodiles) from the modern crocodile of 
the Nile.” 

Professor Huxley *, in 1860, in his description of the premaxillo-maxillary suture of 
the Nile crocodile, pointed out that the whole suture has the form of a W, and that it 
runs backwards from the canine groove as far as the level of the middle of the alveolus 
of the second tooth behind the groove (or that of the seventh tooth), whereas in the 


* Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsinoe, 1889, p. 10. 
* Paleeontogr. Soc. 1850, Monograph Foss. Rept. Lond. Clay, pt. ii. p. 29, pl. 1. fig. 2. 


* ] have not succeeded in tracing the skull. It is neither in the Royal College of Surgeons Museum nor 
in the British Museum. 


* Journ. of Proc. Linn. Soc., Zool. iv. 1860, p. 8 & 15. 


CROCODILUS. 7 


mummified skull figured by Owen the suture appears only to have reached the anterior 
margin of the seventh tooth ; and, apropos of this, Huxley asked: “ Are there, then, 
two or more species of crocodile in Egypt, as Geoffroy St.-Hilaire supposed?” In the 
skull of C. suehus figured by the latter author the suture is asymmetrical on either 
side. On the left it passes backwards to the middle of the alveolus of the seventh 
tooth, and then forwards internally to halfway between the alveolus and the com- 
mencement of the suture in the canine groove. It then bends abruptly inwards and 
slightly backwards to join the suture of the right side, but before doing so, it again for 
a very limited space bends abruptly forwards. ‘The last bend represents the inner 
fourth limb of the W, but almost aborted. On the right side, the W form of the 
suture is still more obscured, as it becomes reduced to a zigzag line running backwards 
from the canine groove to the mesial line of the maxilla, as far as on a level with the 
middle of the alveolus of the sixth tooth, and then inwards, as a jagged almost trans- 
verse line, to the middle of the palate, with a short angular forward bend to join its 
fellow of the opposite side. 

In view of the modifications in the form of the premaxillo-maxillary suture that 
occur in the skulls of Egyptian crocodiles undoubtedly referable to C. niloticus, the 
slight differences indicated in the foregoing description of the suture in these two 
skulls, in the extent to which the outer limb of the W is prolonged backwards, 
cannot be regarded as illustrating more than variation, as in all other respects these 
skulls are specifically identical. The W form of the suture is always more or less 
present, but it is more open in some individuals than in others, and the length of the 
limbs of the W varies considerably. 

Geoffroy believed that the proportion in which the length of a crocodile skull stood 
to its base served as a comparative measure that could be usefully applied in the deter- 
mination of the species, but he allowed at the same time that differences were introduced 
depending upon the conditions of age and sex. As he was, however, under a 
misapprehension as to the age of the type of C. suchws, the figures he adduced 
regarding the relative proportions of the length of the skull to its basal breadth do 
not prove it to be distinct from C. niloticus. 

Geoffroy allowed that the coloration, as already stated, was almost the same in the 
two supposed species, but that there was this difference, that C. niloticus was green 
inclining to bronze, with the black arranged in narrow bands, whereas in C. suchus 
the black was in small spots on a clear green ground. It has been impressed on 
me, by the study of a considerable series of crocodiles, that the general tint is subject 
to much variation, and that the black may either be arranged more or less in bands, 
distinct in some, less so in others, and even becoming broken up into small spots. 
The crocodile of the Nile is thus no exception to the colour-variation which prevails to 
so great an extent in many other reptiles, and indeed is trivial compared with what 
is met with in some snakes and lizards. In certain species of the former group the 


8 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


colour-variation is such that groups of individuals, if judged only by their colour, 
would unhesitatingly be referred to distinct species. A most striking instance of 
this is the snake Homorelaps lacteus, the colour-variations of which have lately been 
made known by Mr. Boulenger !. 

When Geoffroy St.-Hilaire returned, in 1827, to the study of the crocodiles of the 
Nile, not only did he still regard C. suchus as a good species, but he went further and 
described three other species from the same river, besides it and C. niloticus. 

The first of these species, C. marginatus, was represented by mummies and by recent 
specimens. He states that “ Les écailles cervicales, dorsales, pelviennes et sexuo-caudales, 
ne différent ni par nombre ni par la forme de ces mémes écailles dans l’espéce précé- 
dente ” (C. niloticus) ; also that ‘“‘ Les couleurs de cette espéce, qui séparément sont 
les mémes que celles des autres crocodiles, different dans leur distribution respective. 
C’est le méme fond vert, mais il est masqué par une si grande quantité de traits noirs, 
déliés et rapprochés, que cette derniére teinte domine. Les pécheurs de Thebes, 
m’ont parlé de ce crocodile noir; c’est ainsi qwils l’appellent.”? Notwithstanding its 
close similarity to C. niloticus he held that it was distinguished from it by its nuchals 
always being more than two and not exceeding six in number, and by another 
character, viz. :—‘' Le bord jugo-temporal ne forme plus une ligne toute d’une venue, 
parfaitement droite, et uniformément soutenue a la hauteur de la plaque frontale ; 
mais il est remarquable par un relief trés prononcé supérieurement, beaucoup plus en 
arriére que par devant. En vieillissant, ces saillies deviennent des bosselures con- 
sidérables. Le nom de marginatus m’a paru rappeler utilement ce caractere.” Added 
to this, he considered that the way in which the colours were distributed entitled it to 
specific rank. He also attached some importance to the presence of 21 scales in the 
posterior portion of the tail, 7. e. behind the junction of the dorsolateral ridges, as he 
had only met with 16 scales in that part of the tail of C. niloticus, and 19 in C. suchus. 

The swellings on the side of the head, supposed to be characteristic of C. marginatus, 
are also present in skulls which cannot but be regarded as referable to C. niloticus. 
They seem to be largely brought about by age, as they are always most pronounced 
in adults. 

Cuvier, in 1812, described a crocodile from the Senegal as C. biscutatus, distinguished 
by the presence of only two large pyramidal scales on the middle of the nape and two 
small ones in front. Geoffroy was uncertain whether it might not be the same species 
as his C. marginatus; but in describing the fourth species of crocodile from the Nile, 
which he called C. /acunosus, and which had also only two nuchal scales, he says, 
‘**T know of no other crocodile distinguished by this feature, unless it be the discutatus 
of M. Cuvier.” C. lacunosus and C. complanatus were founded on mummies—the 
former on a specimen 2 m. 496 millim. in total length, and the latter on a still larger 


1 Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, p. 409. ? Deser. de Egypte (Svo ed.), Hist. Nat. vi. 1829, p. 565. 


CROCODILUS. 9 


specimen, the dimensions of which are not given. It is, however, now generally 
recognized that all of these supposed species are nothing more than varieties of the 
common crocodile of Africa. 

Bory de St. Vincent! has also described the Nile crocodile under the name 
C. chamses. The crocodile described by Baikie from the Niger as C. binuensis 2, 
and the one from Madagascar named by Grandidier? C. madagascariensis, are both 
unquestionably specifically identical with C. niloticus. 


* Dict. Class. d’Hist. Nat. v. 1824, p. 105. 
* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, p. 48. 
$ Ann. Se. Nat. xv. 1872, art. 20. 


10 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


CrocopiLus NiLoticus. (Plate 1.) 


ljuv. Wadi Halfa. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 

Snout variable, broader in both sexes in the adult than in semi-adults, narrower in 
females than in males, short and broad in the young. Upper surface of the head more 
or less rugose, most so in adults, but devoid of ridges. Two to six anterior nuchal 
plates arranged singly or in pairs on each side of the mesial line, symmetrically or 
asymmetrically, thus: 1+1=2; 24+2=4;3+42=5;3+43=6. Generally six posterior 
nuchals, four anterior and two posterior; but occasionally 5, =, or 1=8, These shields 


have generally a few small scales around them. Fifteen to seventeen transverse bands 
of plates along the back to the base of the tail, thirteen or fifteen of them being dorsal 
and two pelvic in position. Generally six juxtaposed plates in each transverse row on 
the back, with smaller separate plates external to them on the sides, but only four 
plates in transverse series on the pelvic region. The dorsal plates are strongly keeled, 
and constitute six ridges on the back and four on the pelvis. Fifty-one to sixty-one 
rows of scales from the first dorsal to the tip of the tail, and thirty-two to thirty-seven 
from the first dorsal to the commencement of the azygos caudal ridge. Sixty-seven to 
seventy-nine rows of scales from the largest pectoral scale to the tip of the tail. Scales 
on the limbs smooth or carinated ; the hind limb with a broad serrated fringe along its 
posterior border. Hind foot broadly palmate; fore foot webbed at the base of the 
digits. 

General colour greenish or bronze-green, more or less banded or spotted with black, 
more profusely in some than in others, so that the prevailing colour is brownish black, 
but with the green colour still distinct in the interspaces?. Under surface greenish 
yellow. 

The premaxillo-maxillary suture W-shaped, but the degree of openness of the W 
and the length of its limbs variable. 18 or 19 teeth in the upper, and 15 teeth in the 
lower jaw. 

There is considerable variation in the number and size of the nuchals generally. 
The lowest number of the anterior nuchals is 1++-1, and the highest 8+3=6, but 
2+.2—4 appears to be the prevailing arrangement. Occasionally, however, there may 
be 2+3 and 3+2. The posterior nuchals are juxtaposed and are generally arranged 
in two lines, thus #7=6, the most extreme variation being ;+j=4. However, the 
following formule also occur, viz. {#1=5, or #i=6. In the formula 3, a small plate 
occurs external to each side of the scales of the anterior row. ‘They are doubtless 
plates that have become removed away externally. In the asymmetrical formula ; 


1 Tt is not known whether the sexes are distinguished by differences of colour. 


‘sntjdA3ee snueianyq pue snsourds snia}do[doyzy 


Saduald-ATIGOIONXD GCaITIv9-os any 


SNOILOTIN SATIGODOND 


I Id 4dksq jo sayyday 


a, 


CROCODILUS NILOTICUS. 11 


one of the plates of the anterior row has been suppressed. In every case a few keeled 
plates of varying size are arranged around the posterior nuchals, and in one instance 


bol tol 


an additional pair of plates occurs, giving rise to the formula 

The first row of dorsal plates is generally well defined and follows the formula 3+-8, 
but instances occur in which some of the dorsal plates in this row are not developed 
in continuous transverse series. These plates, notwithstanding this abnormality, I have 
regarded as dorsal. 

The statements made by travellers and other observers regarding the length of the 
crocodile of the Nile are most varied. In an Egyptian tale!, as old as the fourth 
dynasty, we learn that a crocodile seven cubits long merited the term “ great” being 
applied to it. Herodotus, on the other hand, gives seventeen cubits as the length ; 
whereas Ailian ? affirms that during the reign of Psammetichus one had been seen 
25 cubits, and another, in the time of Amasides, 26 cubits of four spans each. Abd- 
Allatif 3, a celebrated Arab physician and traveller of Baghdad, who arrived in Egypt 
about 1190 a.p. and taught medicine and philosophy at Cairo for afew years, mentions 
that some crocodiles attained to 20 cubits; whereas Marmol‘, who was in Egypt in 
the middle of the sixteenth century, speaks of crocodiles only 10 cubits long. 
Prospero Alpini °, physician to the Consul for the Venetian Republic in Egypt from 
1581 to 1583, states that the crocodile attained to 30 cubits in length, but, in doing so, 
he was evidently repeating the exaggerated statements of the natives. Wansleben °, 
who was in Egypt about a century later, records that he had heard that the largest 
crocodile did not exceed 12 cubits. Pococke’, who visited the country in the fourth 
decade of the eighteenth century, mentions that he met with specimens from 15 to 20 
feet long ; whereas Hasselquist §, who was in Lower Egypt a few years later on, says 
that some eggs that had been brought to him were from a female 30 cubits in length ; 
but as he apparently did not see the specimen, he was merely repeating what had 
been told him by the natives. Denon, the French Academician, estimated the 
length of one he saw at Denderah to be 15 to 18 feet, whereas, at Keneh, he saw 
some 28 feet in length, whilst another was reported to be 40 feet long 1°. Sonnini 1! 


1 Egyptian Tales translated from the Papyri by Prof. F. Petrie. 1st ser. p. 12. 
* De Nat. Anim. xvii. 6. 

° Relation de l’Egypte, transl. by de Sacy, 1810, p. 140. 

* Descripcion de Africa, 1573, lib. 1. cap. 23. 

* Rerum Aegypt. lib. iv. cap. 5 (Lugd. Bat. 1735, 4to), p. 218. 

* The Present State of Egypt (1672-73), 1678, p. 46. 

™ Descr. of the Hast, i. (1743) p. 114. 

* Tter Palest. 1757, p. 296. 

® Voy. dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte (1798-1799), 1802, i. p. 140. 
© Op. cit. p. 208. 

™ Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypte, 1798, iii. p. 298. 


12 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


mentions that he saw a skin at the convent of Néguadé (Nakadeh) 30 feet long and 4 
broad, and that he had been informed that some individuals attained to 50 feet in 
length, a statement that has recently been made regarding examples of the species in 
the Congo!. John Antes? states that a stuffed skin taken by him to Europe and 
placed in a Museum at Barby (sic) in Saxony measured more than 16 feet, and that it 
was the largest he had seen in any museum. Light *, who measured one he killed at 
Girgeh, in 1814, found that it was about 16 feet in length, but he had, he informs us, 
observed larger individuals. H. Cloquet*, writing in 1818, mentions that his father, 
while in Egypt with the French Expedition, had observed a crocodile at Thebes 25 
feet long ; and Cailliaud °, the celebrated antiquarian, saw one at Denderah of the same 
dimensions. Wilkinson ® first held that it did not exceed 18 or 19 feet, but he after- 
wards believed that it did not attain to 22 feet in length. James Burton? has given 
the measurements of two crocodiles captured at Thebes, in 1850: one 15} and the 
other 164 feet in length. A specimen from the Nehr Zerka, or blue river, in Palestine, 
the crocodile river of the ancients, recorded by Mr. Schumacher, in 1877, was 3 métres 
long’. Mr. Boulenger® states that the largest crocodile in the British Museum 
measures only 434 metres. A skeleton of a male in the Royal College of Surgeons 
Museum, shot at Silsileh by the Hon. C. P. F. Berkeley (now Lord Fitzhardinge), 
is 4m. 700 millim. in length. The late Mr. V. Stuart 1° records that he saw four 
crocodiles at Abu-Simbel, and that one of them must have been 18 feet long. 

From these facts it will be observed that there is no record of the actual measure- 
ments of any Nile crocodile over 17 feet, and that the greater size attributed to 
other specimens has all been guesswork. The limit of growth, however, is quite 
unknown. 

The Nile crocodile lays from 40 to 60 eggs, about the size of those of a goose. They 
are deposited in spring in the sand, where they are hatched by the heat of the sun in 
about a month. Geoffroy says that Herodotus was correct in stating that the mother 
exercises a kind of supervision over the eggs as they approach maturity ; but what the 
nature of this supervision is we do not know, as there is but little reliable information 
on record regarding the habits of this animal. A freshly hatched crocodile is about 


1 Werner, River Life on the Congo, 1889, pp. 184-185. * Op. cit. p. 83. 

3 Travels in Heypt (1814), 1818, p. 47. * Dict. des Se. Nat. xii. 1818, p. 10. 
° Voyage 4 Méroé, au Fleuve Blanc, 1826, i. p. 293. 

° Genl. View of Egypt, 1835, p. 225 note. 7 Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 25,666. 


* Boettger, Ber. Senck. Ges. 1879-80, p. 202. 

® Cat. of Chelonians &c. 1889, p. 283. 

Nile Gleanings, 1879, p. 161. In museums generally, crocodiles are almost invariably mounted lying 
on their bellies, as if they were merely capable of a shambling gait, and could only drag their heavy bodies 
along the ground. Mr. Stuart, however, states that when the large individual mentioned above observed a 
gazelle approaching, it’ got to its legs, and, with slow and deliberate steps, walked along the bank, keeping his 
great heavy body well off the ground. 


CROCODILUS NILOTICUS. 13 


140 millim. long, the head being a little more than § of the entire length, whereas in 
the adult it is 7. The young at once make for the water, where many of them fall a 
prey to Varanus niloticus, which also, along with Herpestes ichneumon, is said to 
destroy many of the eggs. Another reptile, Trionya triunguis, has likewise been 
credited with this habit. 

The ichneumon belongs to a genus the members of which have a decided partiality 
for eggs, but as it frequents, as a rule, situations affording it the cover of reeds and 
long grass—that is, localities in which crocodiles would not deposit their eggs—its 
powers of destruction have been probably exaggerated; but the belief in them is an 
old story, old as the days of Herodotus. Diodorus Siculus! says that during his day 
an infinite multitude of crocodiles existed in the Nile and the neighbouring pools, and 
that being in such numbers there would have been no sailing on the Nile but for the 
ichneumon. Pococke?, on the other hand, says that he could get no account in Upper 
Egypt of the ichneumon destroying the eggs. There can be no doubt, however, that 
if in its wanderings in quest of food it came across the eggs of the crocodile, it 
would treat them just as it does the eggs of a domestic fowl, but that it specially 
searches for them seems most improbable. The fact that it does occasionally eat 
the eggs of that formidable monster, the crocodile, was sufficient to so raise it in the 
estimation of the ancient Egyptians that it became a sacred animal. ‘The cult of 
the ichneumon arose in the nome of Heracleopolis * in Middle Egypt. 

The lizard, Varanus niloticus, Hasselq. & Linn., which has a wide distribution over 
the Nile, is doubtless much more destructive to the eggs than the ichneumon, and as it 
is aquatic as well as terrestrial in its habits, it also wages war against the young 
of the crocodile, pursuing it even into the ranks of the adults4. It thus exercises a 
potent influence in preventing the undue increase of the species. The other species of 
the same genus, Varanus griseus, Daud., probably also consumes many of the eggs of 
the crocodile deposited on the desert banks of the river. The dexterity with which 
this lizard seizes and swallows a domestic fowl’s egg, without breaking it by its sharp 
teeth, is a most interesting sight. 

During the day, the crocodile generally frequents the sand islands in mid-stream, to 
which it is more partial than to the river bank. A. EK. Brehm ® describes how he 
observed through his field-glasses some crocodiles, that had been in undisputed posses- 
sion of a sand-island for half a century, come out of the water at midday and crawl 
upon the island, and how they looked about to ascertain if they were safe, and, having 
satisfied themselves that they were so, flopped down on the sand, relaxed their legs, 
opened their mouths, and composed themselves to sleep. Not only is it very local in 


’ Hist. Bk. i. c. 6 and i. ¢. 3. * Op. cit. vol. i. p. 203. 

Strabo, op. cit. p. 412; ASlian, Nat. Anim. x. 47. 

* Geoffroy, Descr. de l’Egypte, 8vo ed., Hist. Nat. vi. 1829, p. 411; Klunzinger (C. B.), Upper Egypt, 
1878, p. 150. ° Journ. f. Ornith. 1856, p. 491. 


14 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


its habits, frequenting certain sand-islands and reaches of the river, as used to be the 
case 60 or 60 years ago, when it was generally to be observed at Beni Hassan, Assiut, 
Girgeh, Denderah, Thebes, Ombos, and Esneh, but it is more or less gregarious and 
is frequently found in small groups. It seldom goes any great distance from water, 
towards which its head is usually turned when it is basking in the sun; but it is 
occasionally met with in unexpected places in the Upper Nile. Sir 8. Baker! relates 
that in the neighbourhood of Sofi, on the Atbara, he found a crocodile, about 6 feet 
long, lying on the dry summit of a hill far away from water. He supposed that 
the small stream into which the crocodile had wandered from the main river had 
become dry and that the animal had lost its way in quest of water. Schweinfurth ? 
also says it is astonishing in the dry season into what tiny pools and puddles the 
crocodile will make its way, and buried in the miry clay will find a sufficiently 
commodious abode. 

Abd-Allatif ? states that the crocodile, in his day, was found among the rocks of the 
cataracts ; but, Pococke * in writing of those found at Silsileh, accounts for their being 
so numerous there during his time, by reason of the proximity of the cataracts, as he 
says they retire from places in which rocks occur. Burckhardt®, on the other hand, 
records the presence of crocodiles on some rocky islands at Wadi Lamoule; and Sir 
Samuel Baker © observed a crocodile lying among rocks, and so well did it match them 
in colour that most probably a man would not have noticed it until too late. The 
crocodile, however, is undoubtedly most partial to the open reaches of the river with a 
sluggish current and numerous sandbanks. 

Recent writers’ who were not aware of the fact that the crocodile, in early Egyptian 
times, was distributed over the Nile even into the delta, used to explain its rarity 
below Akhmin by the sparseness of islands and rapidity of the current. 

The monuments of the IVth Dynasty, which carry us back 6000 years—a long 
period doubtless in the estimation of the unreflecting, but trivial in the extreme in the 
history of a species,—reveal the fact that the crocodile and hippopotamus afforded sport 
to those resident on the banks of the Nile immediately above Cairo. The proof of 
this is to be found depicted on the Mastaba of Urkhut of the [Vth Dynasty at Gizeh, 
and on the tomb of Ptah Hotep at Sakkarah. Im the former, a scene represents 
Urkhuit, in his funeral bark, starting on his way to the next world, the inhabitants of 
the water being the crocodile and hippopotamus. They may have been introduced into 
this picture as being symbolical of Typho; and, if so, very appropriately, because in 
the tomb of Ptah Hotep, of slightly more recent date, the hunting of these animals by 
the deceased, on the banks of the river at Sakkarah, is represented as one of his 


* Op. cit. p. 224, * The Heart of Africa, ii. 1873, p. 336. 
° Gp. cit. p. 140. * Op. cit. vol. i. p. 114. 
° Travels in Nubia (1812-16), 4to, 1819, p. 48. ° Op, cit. p. 177. 


7 Pococke, op. cit. vol. i. p. 203. 


CROCODILUS NILOTICUS. 15 


In the same tomb another scene depicts a combat between the two animals, 


pastimes. 
The prevalence of these animals throughout 


in which the hippopotamus is victorious. 
Egypt in early times is moreover attested by the monuments of Beni Hassan and 


Thebes. 
It, however, ranged further north than Gizeh, and with the hippopotamus was 


distributed over the streams of the delta and probably extended to lake El Timsah !; 
and it is recorded? that, in the time of Alexander the Great, several soldiers were 
devoured by crocodiles in the delta, where its existence in the beginning of the 
Christian era is established by the account Seneca? has given of a battle between 
crocodiles and dolphins of the sea, at the mouth of the Heracleotic branch of the 
Nile, about 22 Roman miles west of Pelusium, a tale which Pliny has reproduced, 


possibly on the strength of Seneca’s statement. 
Macoudi*, who was in Egypt about 950 a.p., relates that Hutmen, Governor of 


Egypt under the Caliphs of Babylon, about 875, had discovered at Crocodilopolis the 
leaden figure of a crocodile the size of life and bearing an Egyptian inscription. The 
Governor ordered it to be broken up, and from the day that this happened the 
crocodiles began to doa great deal of harm; and Macoudi remarks that the strange 
thing was that the crocodiles that went down to the sea harmed no one, but that on 
returning they killed and ate all that they could catch, and he adds, asa possible 
explanation, that the crocodiles in descending towards the sea found abundance of fish, 


but little in returning. The descent of these crocodiles doubtless was coincident with 


the rise of the Nile. 
Maillet °, who was Consul for France in Egypt, in 1692, states that the crocodile was 


rarely seen in the delta in his day, but its presence there up to nearly the middle of 
last century is recorded by E. Brown®. Shaw’, who wrote in 1738, said that so 


rarely did the crocodile appear below the cataracts that the sight of one was as great 

* Crocodile Lake, or Timsah, once a reedy pond of brackish water. ‘ Egypt,’ S. Lane-Poole, 1881, p. 116. 

* Ampére, Rey. des deux Mondes, sér. v., xix. 1844-5, p. 222. 

* Seneca, Quaest. Nat. lib. iv. cap. 2. The following is Seneca’s account :—“‘ Balbillus, a scholar, prefect 
of Egypt, and a reliable man, tells of a fight he saw at the Heracleotic mouth of the Nile—the largest of 
the seven—between a school of dolphins from the sea and a herd of crocodiles who advanced to meet them. 
The crocodiles were beaten, though their adversaries are peaceable by nature and their bite is not dangerous. 


This was because the belly of the crocodile is soft and unprotected by scales, and the dolphins wounded 


them from beneath by means of the spines on their backs.” The bite of a dolphin not being dangerous, 


according to Balbillus, and he not knowing the soft nature of the dorsal fin of a cetacean, erroneously 
concluded that the fin had wounded the crocodile in the most vulnerable part. But by dolphins he may not 
have meant cetaceans, but some large species of fish with a big dorsal spine. All that the passage establishes 
is the presence of the crocodile in the locality in question. 

* Macoudi, quoted by Marmol, i. (French ed., 1667) pp. 61-62. 

° Descr. de ’Hgypte, 1735, p. 32*. 

° Travels, ii. 1753, p. 154. 

7 Travels in Barbary and Levant, 1738, p. 427. 


16 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


a curiosity at Cairo to the natives as to the Europeans. He, however, did not go south 
of Cairo, and, as Sonnini! remarks, had Shaw been better informed he would have 
learned that Upper Egypt below the cataracts was infested by crocodiles as real as 
they were numerous. 

Towards the end of last century it had disappeared from the delta”, but small 
specimens were occasionally met with a little above Cairo. Its occurrence there must 
have been rare, as Pococke *, who visited Egypt about 1740, only met with his first 
crocodile at Beni Suef, and Sonnini*, towards the close of the century, first saw the 
saurian at Farshtit. Denon (1798-9) first encountered it at Denderah; but he saw 
great numbers of all sizes at Keneh, and he remarks that they seemed to affect the 
banks in certain parts, particularly from Denderah to Ombos, and were most numerous 
at Hermentis (Erment), but apparently less so at Esneh. Henry Light ® (1814) and 
Major Mackworth 7 (1821-22) record having met crocodiles at Girgeh, Cailliaud § 
(1826) at Denderah, and Melly® (1851) at Beni Hassan. The Rev. A. C. Smith 1°, 
writing in 1868, mentions that although he kept a daily outlook for crocodiles, he met 
none until he had reached El Kab; but A. L. Adams 4, in 1870, records that they were 
occasionally seen as far down as Beni Hassan, but that it was evidently receding 
everywhere below the First Cataract. 

Lord Fitzhardinge, whose experience of the Nile extends over many years, informs 
me that when he first went to Egypt, now about twenty-five years ago, there were three 
places north of Assuan where crocodiles were to be seen, viz. below Denderah, a rocky 
islet in the Nile north of Silsileh, and the sands to the south of the latter locality. 
Four crocodiles were generally to be seen at each of these places. Now, however, they 
have completely disappeared north of the First Cataract. A young crocodile may 
occasionally be carried past the cataract in the period of flood, but so rare has the 
animal become that if one were observed no rest would be given it until it was 
destroyed. A small specimen about 5 feet in length, and probably with a similar 
history, was killed below Assuan in 1890 or 1891, and the stuffed skin was preserved 
over the door of the quarters of one of the British officers at that town. 

It is still not at all uncommon between the First and Second Cataracts, but becomes 
much more numerous in the direction of Dongola. 

From early times, even up to the end of the 17th century, the crocodile cecurred in 
abundance above Cairo. This is proved not only by the great number of mummified 


' Op. cit. i. p. 381, * John Antes, op. cit. p. 82. 
3 Op. cit. i. p. 70. * Op, cit. iii. p. 164. 
° Op. cit. p. 140. ° Op. cit. p. 47. 


” Diary of a Tour through S. India, Egypt, and Palestine, 1823, p. 225. 
* Op. cit. i. p. 293. 

* Khartoum and the Blue and White Niles, 1851, i. p. 128. 

© Attractions of the Nile and its Banks, i. p. 257. 

* Notes on the Nile Valley and Malta, p. 53. 


CROCODILUS NILOTICUS. 17 


crocodiles found at various localities along the banks of the Nile, but by the testimony 
also of many authors—for example, Diodorus Siculus ! and AZlian?. The latter states 
that they were plentiful at Ombos, Koptos, and Arsinoe, where they were reared, and 
that it was unsafe to walk along the bank of the river, to wash one’s feet in the stream, 
or to draw water. Leo Africanus °, writing about the middle of the 16th century, not 
only mentions that they were very numerous, but adds that if all had been equally 
rapacious the Nile valley would have been quite uninhabitable; and Prospero Alpini 4 
states that during his stay in Egypt crocodiles were especially abundant above Cairo, 
and that towards Thebes they were so numerous that it was unsafe to bathe in the 
river or in the lakes. Sonnini® mentions that the little boat in which he went up 
the river was often, in the neighbourhood of Thebes, surrounded by crocodiles lying 
on the surface of the water, and that they allowed him to pass with perfect indifference ; 
and in the third decade of this century it was still very numerous in places, as 
a traveller ® relates that in one locality he counted twenty-one in sight at one and the 
same time. John Antes? accounted for the absence of crocodiles in the delta and 
immediately above Cairo, just as Edward Brown ® had done before him, by reason of 
the vast numbers of boats that were continuously sailing up and down the river 
between Rosetta, Damietta, and Cairo. A similar cause has brought about its complete 
disappearance below the First Cataract. The splendid work achieved by the savants 
attached to the French Expedition to Egypt made known the marvels of the civilization 
of ancient Egypt to an astonished Europe, and ultimately drew, first a few enterprising 
travellers from the different European nationalities, and others who entered Egypt 
from India by Kosseir. As years went on, the number of travellers who flocked to the 
Nile valley to see its wonders, or for purposes of sport, led to the creation of greater 
facilities for travel, of which so many have availed themselves that the Nile has at 
last become the highway of excursion steamers, and fleets of dahabeahs, some towed by 
steam-launches, and a regular service of steam-packet boats. Nearly every traveller, 
savant, sportsman, or inquisitive sightseer, from Europe, India, or America, has directed 
his arms of precision against the crocodile, which was considered one of the wonders 
of the Nile, and a beast, if possible, to be killed. This, and the commotion caused 
in the formerly tranquil river by the ever increasing traffic, have effectually freed the 
Lower Nile of one of its most interesting denizens, reverenced by the ancient inhabitants 
as a god, and recently so formidable that we read, in the end of the 17th century, 
of its even stopping the progress of small caravans. 

The Nile crocodile has always and justly been credited with great ferocity, but the 


* Op. cit. p. 17. 2 lian, De Nat. Anim. x. 24. 
* Deseritt. Afr. 1554, fol., Ramusio’s coll. i. p. 101. * Op. cit. p. 218. 
* Op. cit. ii. p. 297. 
° Incidents of Travel in Egypt and Arabia Petrea and the Holy Land, by an American, i. 1837, p. 98. 
7 Op. cit. p. 82. ° Op. cit. ii. p. 154. ® Maillet, op. cit. p. 32*. 
D 


18 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


degree to which it manifests this seems to depend largely on the abundance of its food- 
supply, as pointed out by Macoudi! and by Schweinfurth*. Fish is its principal diet, 
but birds, the domestic animals found along the banks of the Nile, baboons *, and 
man himself, all fall to it as prey. It either seizes its prey directly with its jaws or, 
by means of its powerful tail, whisks its prey within reach of them, dragging it 
under the water. 

Notwithstanding the nature of its food it is eaten by the Sudanese and by other 
African tribes 4, apparently by reason of its reputed aphrodisical properties. 

Herodotus ® says that as the crocodile “ lives chiefly in the river it has the inside of 
its mouth constantly covered with insects that suck its blood; all other beasts and 
birds avoid it: with the trochilus alone it lives at peace, because this little bird 
renders it a great service; for the crocodile when it leaves the water and comes out 
upon the land is in the habit of lying with its mouth wide open facing the western 
breeze ; at such times the trochilus goes into the crocodile’s mouth and devours the 
insects it finds there, and the crocodile, recognizing this, does the bird no harm.” 
Pliny’s ° account, which is somewhat different, is as follows :—‘* When the crocodile has 
eaten, it goes to sleep on the banks, when a little bird, known in Egypt as the 
trochilus, and in Italy as the king of birds, in order to obtain food, invites the 
crocodile to open its jaws, then, hopping to and fro, it first cleans the outside of its 
mouth, next the teeth, and then inside, when the crocodile opens its jaws as wide as 
possible, on account of the pleasure it experiences from the titillation. It is at these 
moments that the ichneumon darts down its throat and eats its way out through its 
belly.” Geoffroy St.-Hilaire* held that the word SdéA\a, as applied by Herodotus to the 
insects in the mouth of the crocodile, in its original meaning signified animals that 
suck, but that ultimately it became specialized and was applied to the true leeches, 
hirudo. ‘The word, Geoffroy held, was not used by Herodotus in the latter specific 
sense, but referred to insects, such as gnats, which suck blood. Herodotus, however, 
explains the presence of the sucking animals in the mouth of the crocodile as being 
due to its aquatic habit, which does not coincide with Geoffroy’s supposition that they 
were aerial insects. Aristotle 8, who also mentions the supposed intimacy subsisting 
between the trochilus and the crocodile, while he offers no explanation of the word 
BdékXw used by Herodotus, says that the bird flew into the mouth of the crocodile 
because it found food about its teeth, which nourished it. 

From the accounts Geoffroy received from the fishermen and by personal knowledge 
he became aware that the crocodile, when it comes out of the water to repose, is 


* Marmol, 7. ¢. pp. 61-62. * Op. cit. ii. p. 336. 3 Sir S. Baker, op. cit. p. 241. 

* <A Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages,’ 1693, ii. pp. 177-180; Baker’s ‘Albert Nyanza, ii. p. 122, 
and ‘Nile Tributaries,’ p. 166 ; ‘Ismailia,’ i. p.57; J. W. Gregory, ‘The Great Rift Valley,’ 1896, pp. 277-278. 

° ii. to xvii. ° Nat. Hist. Bk. viii. ce. 37. 

7 Deser. de Egypte, Nat. Hist. (Svo ed.) vi. 1827, p. 432. 8 Hist. Anim. ix. vii. 3. 


CROCODILUS NILOTICUS. 19 


assailed by a swarm of gnats. He experimented with a dead crocodile, and he says its 
mouth was not so hermetically closed that gnats could not find an entrance, and 
consequently he discovered the palate of this dead animal covered with a brownish- 
black crust, made up of a multitude of gnats, ranged side by side, with their trunks 
buried in the ducts of the glands that abound in the mouth of the crocodile. He 
believed the same happened in the case of a living crocodile basking with its mouth 
open on a sandbank, but whether this really does occur he had no means of testing by 
actual observation. Nevertheless he accepted it as an established fact, and adds :— 
** Tl est certain que si, dans l’état dimperfection de ses organes, le crocodile etit été, au 
grand jour de la création, réduit a ses seuls moyens, c’est 4 dire quil etit été délaissé 
sans autre ressource, cette espéce n’aurait pu traverser les siécles et arviver 4 nous.” 
The imperfections of structure to which he referred were the seeming inability of the 
crocodile to free its palate from gnats by the use of its fore limbs and the nearly 
immobile character of its tongue. He did not accept Aristotle’s statement that the 
trochilus entered the crocodile’s mouth to clean its teeth, as he thought that the animal 
itself could perform this part of its toilet with its hind feet. ‘The difficulty of a 
crocodile freeing its mouth from insects, should they enter and settle on it, seems purely 
imaginary, as the mere closure of the mouth would at once suffice, not only to exclude 
them, but also to destroy them effectually. 

The habit of lying with the mouth open is not confined to large crocodiles, as the 
young do the same; but as all the birds hitherto regarded as the crocodile bird are of 
such dimensions that they could not enter the mouth even of a specimen one-third 
grown, far less that of the young, the question naturally arises, if the trochilus is so 
essential to the existence of the crocodile, how are the mouths of these young 
specimens freed of their mortal foes ? 

Everyone acquainted with Egypt knows how the domestic animals in the fields and 
on the banks of the river are pestered by the attacks of insects, and how birds are 
drawn towards them in quest of their insect prey, and tolerated by the cattle, asses, 
and camels owing to the relief they afford. It is the same with the crocodile and 
the hippopotamus. 

The crocodile, however, from the nature of its food, is the host of many parasitic 
worms !, which, while the animal lies basking in the sun, find their way into its mouth, 
doubtless brought up by the stimulating action of the air on the pharynx, and reflexly 
on the cesophagus and stomach. The presence of these worms would also prove an 
attraction to some birds, and it was doubtless to them that Macoudi? referred when he 
said that whatever the crocodile eats turns into worms in its belly; and he added that 
the crocodile, whenever it felt itself inconvenienced by them, came out of the water on 


* Mr. Wenham (Gould's ‘ Birds of Asia,’ vii., art. Pluvianus eyyptius, April 1865), who dissected a Nile 
crocodile 14 feet long, could not find any parasites, but they are known to exist all the same. 
* Les Prairies d’Or (Trans. Soc. As. Paris, 1861-74), i. p. 235. 
D2 


20 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


to the land and lay down and opened its mouth, when water-birds, such as the Taitawi, 
the Hasani, the Shamirek, and other sorts, came to eat them, a story which was repeated 
by Makrizit. 

It has been stated by Aristotle 2 and Pliny °, and repeated by some modern authors, 
that animal matter so accumulates about the teeth of the crocodile that birds are 
attracted by it, and even venture to pick it off from them. Considering the entire 
absence of movement in a reposing crocodile, this may possibly occur, but that a 
crocodile would refrain from closing its jaws on a bird that entered its mouth out of 
consideration for the service rendered by it, is too absurd to merit serious consideration. 
Burckhardt 4 also states that the crocodile brings up digested food from its stomach, 
and that a bird enters its mouth to feed upon it! The probability is that if any 
particular species of bird has the habit, many an individual has lost its life by so 
doing. 

The name commonly given to the smaller plovers by the ancient Greeks was 
+goxidoc, the term applied by Herodotus to the little bird which he described as freeing 
the mouth of the crocodile of BdédAa. It is impossible, however, to say what species 
of bird Herodotus® and Aristotle® had in view. Pliny’, on the other hand, says that 
it was the bird known in Italy as the king of birds, viz. a wren; but Plutarch ® ascribed 
to it habits that rendered Pliny’s supposition impossible, as he states that the bird 
delighted in the borders of marshes and rivers. Ammianus?, who was alive about 
390 a.p., and who has a reputation for accuracy, says no more than that the trochilus 
was a small bird; while Macoudi!® only speaks of it as a bird having the habit of 
approaching the crocodile and eating the worms that come out of its mouth. 

Cardano 11, in his great work, speaks of the crocodile-bird as a wren, having 
apparently accepted Pliny as his authority ; but Scaliger 1*, in his bitter criticism of 
Cardano’s work, pointed out that the bird was not a wren. Aldrovandus !%, doubtless 
having in view Plutarch’s description of the habits of the crocodile-bird, conjectured 
that it might be Charadrius gallicus, a suggestion that has not been adopted by any 
other author, although the habits of this bird are such that it is found in the localities 
frequented by basking crocodiles. 

Marmol !4 describes the bird as white in colour and of the size of a thrush ; and also 
says: “ Ces oiseaux y entrent et sortent en toute assurance ; car quand mesme le crocodile 
youdroit refermer la gueule il ne pourroit, parceque la nature a donné a ces oiseaux une 


1 Deser. Topograph. et Hist. de ’Egypte, trad. par M. Bouriant, 1895, p. 189. 


* Hist. Anim. ix. vi. 3. 5 Nat. Hist. Bk. viii. c. 37. * Op. cit. p. 24. 

5 Herod. ii. 68. ° Hist des Anim. t. iii. 1883, par J. B. St.-Hilaire, p. 157. 

7 Hist. Nat. lib. viii. cap. 37. * (Luvres du Plutarque, J. Amyot, 1784, xiii. p. 357. 

® Ammian. Marcellinus, xxii. (Hamburg, 1609), p. 248. © Op. cit. i. pp. 235-6. 


0 De la subtilité et subtiles inventions &c., 1551 (Hrench ed. 1556), p. 188. 
2 Bxotericarum Hxercit. lib. xv. de subtil. ad H. Cardano, 1557, Exere. 196, sect. 5. 
19 Ornith. tomus alter. (2) 1645, p. 649. 4 Op. cit. lib. i. cap. 22. 


CROCODILUS NILOTICUS. 21 


épine sur la teste avec laquelle ils piquent le haut du palais du crocodile, et lui font 
ouvrir la gueule malgré quil en ait.” ‘This reference to the bird being provided with a 
spine, wrongly placed, however, by Marmol, is of interest when taken in connection 
with the story told by the Arabs of the present day. Indeed his account was in all 
probability derived from the Arabs he met with during his visit to the Nile valley. 

Pére Sicard 1, in one of his letters from Egypt written in the first or second decade 
of the last century, mentions the sagsag, the ibis, Egyptian goose, and little egret as 
birds of the Nile, and adds that the first is the trochilus of the ancients. The term 
sag-sag or zig-zag is rendered in Arabic 4),3;, and is applied by the inhabitants of 
Egypt to Hoplopterus spinosus, also known to them as &...=Sisah, and appropriately 
by still another name, viz. «,% »!=Abu choka, or the father of spines. The term 
Sisah is also applied to Pluvianus wegyptius. 

When Geoffroy St.-Hilaire was at Thebes he learned that there was a small bird 
that flew without ceasing from place to place, “jusque dans la gueule du crocodile,” 
asleep or feigning to be so, attracted to it by the presence of insects. This bird, he 
says, was seen everywhere along the Nile, and when he became possessed of a specimen 
he recognized in it a species that had already been described by Hasselquist under the 
name of Charadrius egyptius. On carefully considering what Geoffroy says about this 
bird, it is evident that the species he obtained could not have been C. egyptius, as has 
been generally supposed ?. He says “ nous avons, en France, un oiseau trés-voisin, s'il 
n’est le méme ; cest le petit pluvier a collier,” and in another passage he speaks of it 
as “le petit pluvier.” If he had had Charadrius egyptius before him he would never 
have made this comparison, as there is no bird in France at all resembling it, and, 
besides, it could never be said by anyone knowing the two birds, C. wgyptius and 
Aigialites curonica, that they might perhaps prove to be identical, which, however, is 
perfectly true of the “ petit pluvier 4 collier” of Egypt and France. Moreover, from 
the fact that he states that the bill of his supposed trochilus was so fine that it could 
only pick up small insects, the spawn of fish, or little fragments of animal matter cast 
up by the river, it is perfectly clear that he was not dealing with a bird having the 
strong bill of Charadrius egyptius, but with “ un oiseau trés-voisin, sil n’est le méme ; 
c'est le petit pluvier a collier.” This appears to be a perfectly legitimate conclusion. 
The lesser ringed plover, according to the majority of ornithologists who have written 
on the birds of Egypt, is universally distributed and very common. From its habits 
it is quite as likely to fly about and even to settle on a sleeping crocodile as any of 
the other birds to whom the habit has been ascribed, and, moreover, we have Geoffroy’s 
testimony that he had seen it flitting from place to place, “‘jusque dans la gueule du 


crocodile endormi ou feignant de I’étre.” 


* Lettres édifiantes, v. nouy. éd. 1780, p. 351. 
* Dictionary of Birds, by A. Newton and H. Gadow, part iii. 1894, p. 733 footnote. 


22 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Geoffroy, believing that he had before him the true trochilus of Herodotus, and 
being aware that the Jesuit Sicard had stated that the sag-sag of the Arabs was 
the trochilus, applied this term to his bird (Ayialites curonica), which he had 
erroneously identified with Pluvianus egyptius. Other authors, in accepting his 
identification, have thus used the term zig-zag for the wrong bird (Pluvianus wgyptius), 
but Gurney! has correctly applied it to the plover (Hoplopterus spinosus). It is thus 
evident that the bird which Geoffroy saw entering the crocodile’s mouth was not 
P. cegyptius. It is noteworthy, moreover, that Brehm?, who is the only other 
observer, until recent years, who has stated that he had seen P. egyptius enter the 
crocodile’s mouth, calls it the zig-zag, whereas Heuglin® says that it is known to 
the Arabs as the Ter el Temsach, 7. e. Tayir el Timsah, in Arabic _,\b cea= 
crocodile-bird. 

Dr. A. Leith Adams 4, however, has pointed out that the Arab story, which was told 
to him in much the same words, apparently, as it was recounted to Marmol °, more than 
three and a half centuries ago, is always related of the zig-zag. Geoffroy ridiculed 
Blanchard’s ® remark about the bird having a spine either on its back or at the end of 
its wings; and so little did he think of Hoplopterus spinosus as possibly being the bird, 
that he threw out the supposition that Blanchard had been influenced by some remarks 
on the crocodile-bird made by Scaliger’, and had mixed up with them a passage in 
which Strabo® speaks of the fish porcus having spines on its pectoral fins, and adds 
that Marmol, who ought to have been better informed, as he had visited Egypt, had 
repeated what Scaliger had said about the bird. But Strabo merely says the crocodiles 
never touch the porcus, a round fish, as it has the head provided with spines dangerous 
to the crocodile. In Marmol’s description of the bird, as has already been seen, 
there is no mention of spines on the wings ; but Blanchard states: “la nature a donné 
aux plumes du petit oiseau, soit sur le dos, soit au bout des ailes, une roideur qui 
picoteroit durement les parties charnues de la gueule du crocodile, sil vouloit la 
fermer,” thus supplementing Marmol’s indication, and, in so doing, suggesting 
Hoplopterus spinosus to future observers. 

My. J. M. Cook ® has recorded that he has seen the true zig-zag (Hoplopterus spinosus) 
go deliberately up to a crocodile apparently asleep, the latter open its jaws, the bird 
hop into the mouth, and the jaws close upon it. In little more than a minute or two 
the crocodile opened its mouth, the bird came out and ran down to the water; and this 
he saw repeated three times, but witnessed it through field-glasses at the distance of 


* Rambles of a Naturalist in Egypt, 1876, p. 198, * Thierleben, Vogel, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 266. 
* Ornith. Nordost-Afr. 1873, ii. p. 978. 

* Ibis, 1864, p. 29. ® Op. cit. cap. 22. 

° Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscrip. ix. 1736, 2 sect. p. 25. 

7 Op. cit. Exerc. 196, sect. 5. * Op. cit. lib. xvii. 1819, p. 446. 


® This, 1893, p. 276. 


CROCODILUS NILOTICUS. 


Lis) 
oo 


half a mile! The improbability of any bird coming out alive from the closed mouth 
of a crocodile is so great, and the proceeding on the part of the bird itself, as recorded 
by Mr. Cook, so meaningless (as it would be impossible for it to feed when the mouth 
was shut), that the observation cannot be accepted as reliable. 

One way in which the birds that have been mentioned, but especially H. spinosus 
and P. egyptius, are unquestionably useful to the crocodile, is testified to by Alian ', 
and by every sportsman on the Nile, for no sooner is a man detected approaching 
than these birds utter their clear notes, thus warning the crocodile of impending 
danger. 

Now that the Nile above Wadi Halfa, where crocodiles abound, has once’ more been 
thrown open to Europeans, it is to be hoped that some one interested in the habits of 
animals may find out what species of birds associate with the crocodile, how they 
comport themselves to it, and what service, if any, they render to it *. 

Brehm ®*, Heuglin*, Dresser °, and others have said that Pluvianus egyptius is U in 
the hieroglyphic alphabet of the Egyptians, and it is even stated that the Egyptians of 
old were well acquainted with it, and that it frequently occurs on wall-paintings. I 
have gone carefully through the literature bearing on the wall-paintings of Egypt, 
but I have not been able to find a single representation of Pluvianus egyptius. The U 
of the alphabet is unquestionably a newly-fledged domestic chicken, a most important 
bird with the Egyptians, who, then as now, largely if not exclusively brought all their 
poultry to life by artificial incubation. The wings devoid of quills, the absence of 
tail-feathers, and the generally imperfect character of the feathering of the bird of the 
hieroglyph U are all distinctive of a bird that has just left the egg. By some 
Kgyptologists I believe the figure has been taken for a quail. 


The great Roman satirist ® says:—‘‘ Who does not know what kinds of monsters 
demented Egypt worships? One part adores the crocodile, another quakes before the 
ibis gorged with serpents . . , . whole houses venerate cats, here a river-fish, and there 


2 


adog”.... This animal-worship in Egypt shows traces of a savage ancestry that goes 


back to a period long ages before the construction of the oldest monuments of the Nile 
valley, to the days when the groups of prehistoric men dotted along the banks of the 


* Op. cit. viii. 25. 

* Additional literature bearing on this subject :— 

Brehm, Journ. f. Ornith. 1856, p. 491; E. C. Taylor, Ibis, 1859, p. 52, 1867, p. 68; S.S. Allen, Ibis, 
1863, p. 156; Gould’s < Birds of Asia,’ vii. 1865, article Pluvianus egyptius ; J. H. Gurney, jun., ‘ Rambles of 
a Naturalist in Egypt, &c.,’ 1876, p. 198; Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vii. 1878, p. 522 & p. 542 ; Klunzinger, 
‘Upper Egypt,’ 1878, p. 150; D’Aubusson, ‘ Echassiers d’Egypte,’ p. 16; ‘ Dictionary of Birds,’ Newton & 
Gadow, pt. iii. 1894, p. 733 footnote. 

3 Thierleben, Vogel, iii. 2nd ed. p. 266. * Ornith. Nordost-Afr. p. 978. 

* Birds of Europe, vii. p. 523. 

© Juvenal, Sat. xy. 1. 


24 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


great river had their tribal fetishes and deified totems’. The problem yet to be 
solved is how the superstition of these primitive men became modified, and evolved 
into the complex system of animal-worship distinctive of historical Egypt. Immense 
materials having a distinct bearing on this subject are accumulated in the museums 
of nearly every European nation, but as yet we are as far off from its solution as 
ever. 

The fact that the crocodile was both reverenced and detested by different 
communities along the banks of the Nile seems to favour the supposition that 
its worship was a survival either of fetishism or totemism. It was carefully nurtured 
and fed by the priests in certain localities, while in others it was ruthlessly slain ? 
and even eaten. 

Various trivial explanations, however, have been offered as to the origin of its 
worship. Diodorus Siculus says it may be asked, how is it that an animal that devours 
man should receive the reverence paid to a deity? and as an answer he adduces as a 
reason that which had already been advanced by Cicero before him, viz. that not only 
the Nile, but the crocodiles inhabiting it were a protection to the country, as were it 
not for the prevalence of the crocodile the homesteads of the people would have been 
pillaged either by robbers from the east (Arabia) or from the west (Libya), who were 
deterred from swimming across the Nile by the fear of being devoured by the saurian. 
This explanation is interesting because it shows how numerous crocodiles were in 
the first century of the Christian era, largely brought about doubtless by their having 
been carefully preserved for ages at certain towns, such as Kom Ombos, Thebes, 
Koptos, and Crocodilopolis-Arsinoe in the Fayum, or lakeland ; but as an explanation 
of the origin of the cult it is worthless. Also in keeping with the state of knowledge 
in the time of Diodorus is the supposition he quotes, viz. that the worship of the 
crocodile arose because Mena, the first king of Egypt, had been saved from his dogs, 
that had pursued him to lake Merris, by a crocodile which carried him in safety on its 
back to the opposite bank. De Pauw” advanged the theory that as ‘“‘ the crocodile was 
widely distributed in the flooded Nile, its appearance in places remote from the main 
stream signified water fit for drinking and suited for the irrigation of the land, and 
that consequently the Government encouraged its worship, believing that the super- 
stition, as long as it lasted, would be the means of keeping the canals open, especially 
in such cities as Koptos‘* and Arsinoe, which lay at some distance from the river.” 


' Tylor, ‘ Primitive Culture,’ ii. p. 238, 2nd ed. 

* Strabo, op. cit. p. 418. 

* Rech. Phil. sur les Egyptiens et sur les Chinois, ii. (1773, Berlin), p. 122. 

* This may have been the case in Ptolemaic and in Roman times, but Professor Petrie, “‘from the 
configuration of the base soil” about Koptos, says that ‘‘it seems not improbable that the river ran close to 
the western side of the town in the earliest times” (Koptos, 1896, p. 1). 


CROCODILUS NILOTICUS. 25 


Sir J. G. Wilkinson’ also held that the reverence paid to the crocodile and to certain 
fish had nothing whatever to do with religion originally, but had been instituted by 
authority for the reason suggested by De Pauw. 

Whatever may have been the origin of the cult, the crocodile, in certain localities, 
was sacred to and the emblem of Sebek, the water-god, who caused the Nile to rise. 
In other places it was the symbol of impurity and an emblem of Typhon, and was 
tuthlessly destroyed. 

Under the new Empire, Sebek ultimately became identified with the God “ Ra,” and 
in the Fayum he was represented, in human form, with the head of a crocodile, horns, 
sun-disc, and feathers. The simplicity of the original religion became obscured by 
fanciful speculations ; but, at the same time, the tendency seems to have been towards 
a monotheism rich in individualized attributes. 

As the impersonification of evil, the crocodile is not unfrequently represented in cippi 
as under the feet of Horus, the avenger of Osiris. In a cippus of this nature in 
the possession of Professor Petrie, and probably not older than the XIXth Dynasty, 
Horus stands on two crocodiles, holding a lion by the tail and two serpents in his left 
hand, and an oryx by its horns in his right hand. A quiver of arrows is across his 
shoulders. Over the head of the deity are the wings and disc, but no serpent, simply 
indicating the protection of the Sun. The lion and the serpent were both forms 
typical of Typhon, while the oryx likewise, according to Champollion, was also 
emblematical of the evil principle. In remarkable contrast to this is the elaborate 
cippus of Ptolemaic date figured by Wilkinson 2. 

The hippopotamus, which had much the same distribution in the Nile in former 
times as the crocodile, and only disappeared from the delta towards the end of the 
17th century *, was also an emblem of Typhon, and worshipped at Papremis 4 (Chois) 
in the delta. Inthe papyri and on the monuments there are curious figures made up of 
these two animals, as, for example, in the papyrus of Ani, to take a single illustration 
among many others, in which a crocodile’s head takes the place of that of a hippo- 
potamus, the fore quarters of the latter becoming those of a leopard; but many other 
complex figures are met with. The hippopotamus itself, sitting erect on its hind- 
quarters, with pendulous human-like mamme, represents the Goddess Thieris, in 
Egyptian ‘Ta-trt, or “the Great,” said to be the concubine of Typhon; and figures of 
this nature are met with, having a crocodile, the male personification of evil, clinging 
on to her back. 

Professor Petrie has recently published some most important results attained by 
him at Koptos °, and I have to thank him for having permitted me to examine the two 
earliest figures extant of the crocodile, modelled in Nile clay. They were discovered 


* Rawlinson’s Herod. ii. 1880, p. 76, note 5. * The Ancient Egyptians, ili. pl. xxxiii. 
° Maillet, op. cit. p. 31*, * Herod. ii. 71. 
° Koptos, 1896. 


26 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


among a number of earthenware figures of men and animals found in the sanctuary of 
the oldest temple at Koptos. Professor Petrie regards them as having been dedicated 
in the temple, and therefore as representing the best work of their time. One 
represents a rudely executed figure of a crocodile, more or less imperfect, while the 
other, which is much superior to it in execution, is merely a fragment of the tail of a 
crocodile-figure of still larger size, which when entire must have been a work of art, 
if the details of the scaly covering were as accurately represented in the rest of it 
as they are in this fragment. Unlike the first, it was faced with red hematite. 

The evidence collected by Professor Petrie lends its sanction to the conclusion he 
has arrived at that these figures go back to the IIIvd Dynasty, a transition-period in the 
history of Egyptian art, in which modelling in clay was being gradually replaced by 
sculpturing in stone. Such considerations as these, and the fact that Koptos was one 
of the headquarters of the worship of the crocodile, taken in connection with the 
discovery of these figures in the sanctuary of a temple, render them of considerable 
interest. 

Professor Petrie and Mr. Quibell, in their discoveries in the extensive cemeteries along 
the edge of the desert between Naquada and Ballas 1, have brought to light a mass of 
non-Egyptian remains of an invading people who occupied the Thebaid alone, between 
3300 and 3000 8B.c., and whom their discoverers have called “the foreigners ” or “‘ New 
Race.” This people, probably a branch of the Libyan race, preserved an entirely 
different culture from the Egyptians, with whom apparently they had no connection ; 
but with them they were equally impressed by the might of the crocodile, and depicted 
its capture on their pottery, in a very primitive fashion ?. 

From the IVth Dynasty downwards to Ptolemaic times the crocodile is frequently 
represented on the monuments, on papyri, and also on other objects, such as coffins. 
Moreover, numerous representations of it are met with sculptured in stone and cast in 
metal, and a drawing on a papyrus at Turin represents it in a serio-comic attitude 
as a member of an ochestra of animals parodying a human concert. 

The most ancient representation of a crocodile, as a hieroglyph on the monuments, is 
to be found on Nefermat’s tomb near the pyramid of Medum® of the IVth Dynasty. 
Here Nefermat stands with ason before him, and his wife, Atet, below him with 
three sons, one of whom is designated chief of the lake of the crocodile, which, 
Professor Petrie points out, is of especial interest, as it is the earliest mention of the 
Fayum. 

In hieroglyphs, the figure of a crocodile generally meant only crocodile, as, for 
example, in the tomb of Nefermat, and in the prayer in the ‘ Book of the Dead,’ which 


1 «Naquada and Ballas,’ by Messrs. Petrie, Quibell, and Spurrell, 1896, 
* Op. cit. pl. xxxy. 78. 
$ Medum, 1892, p. 25, pl. xviii. 


CROCODILUS NILOTIOUS. 27 


exclaims “Deliver me from the crocodiles in this land”'!, It also appeared in the 
proper names of private individuals, as, for instance, in the stele mentioned by 
Champollion 2 the younger, in which a male and female are spoken of as the children 
of the crocodile, or, ideographically, of Sebek. It was likewise used as a deter- 
minative of certain phonetic groups. On the other hand, one of these groups, 
signifying Sebek, was occasionally replaced in the texts by a figure of the god himself, 
in human form, but with the head of a crocodile. ‘The same deity was ideographically 
represented by a crocodile lying on a pediment. 

Another hieroglyph relating to the crocodile was the one first mentioned by 
Herapollo?, who says ‘that when the ancient Egyptians would write ‘darkness’ 
they use the tail of a crocodile.” This sign, a fragment of the tail, also meant 
“black,” and likewise formed part of one of the phonetic groups for a name of Egypt. 


The apparently most northern limit of the distribution of this species is the Zerak 
and Kishon rivers in Syria‘. It occurs throughout the Nile and its tributaries, and 
in nearly all the rivers of Africa from the Shebeli in Somaliland, southwards to the 
Cape of Good Hope, thence northwards to the Senegal river, also in all the more 
important lakes, and in the island of Madagascar. 

It probably once had a wider range in Syria than at present, as Saligniac, 1525 a.p.°, 
relates that when he was bathing in the Jordan with some other pilgrims, one of their 
company, a French physician, having ventured farther into the river than the others, 
was carried off by a crocodile. ‘s 

According to the Chronicles of Sicily ® the crocodile has appeared from time to time 
in that island, in the waters of the Papireto and the Garaffello, near Palermo; in the 
environs of Messina; and in the river Amenano, close to Catania. It has also been 
stated that the Romans obtained crocodiles, for combat in the arena, from Cyrenaica » 
but as there are no rivers in that country in which these saurians could live, they were 
doubtless, in the first instance, imported to Cyrene from Kgypt. 


* Renouf, ‘ Elementary Grammar of Ancient Egypt. Lang.,’ 1875, p. 21. 

2 Syst. Hieroglyph. 1828, p. 29, nos. 214 & 215. 

$ Lib. i. 70. 

* Pococke, op. cit. vol. ii. pt. 1, 1745, p.58; Tobler, Petermann’s Mitth. 1858, p.8; Friedel, Zool. Gart. x. 
1869, p. 161; Mettenheimer, Zool. Gart. xiii. 1872, p. 237; Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, 
pp: 199-206. 

° Iter, Bk. ix. chap. vi. i 

5 Doderlein, Ann. Soc. Nat. Modena, vi. 1872, pp. 202-3. 


o 


Es 


28 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


CHELONIA. 


TESTUDINIDA. 
TESTUDO. 
Testudo, part., Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 350. 


TEstuDo LEITH, Giinther. (Plate II.) 

Testudo greca, Lichtenstein (nec Linn.), Verz. Doubl. Mus. Ber. 1823, p. 91; Riippell, Neue 
Wirbelth. 1835-40, Amph. p. 4; Peters, Monat. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 305. 

Testudo marginata, part., Dum. & Bibr. ii. 1835, p. 37; part., A. Dum. Cat., Rept. 1851, p. 3. 

Testudo leithii, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 502, figs.; Boulenger, Cat. Chel. B. M. 1889, 
p. 175; Anderson, Herpet. of Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 95. 

Testudo kleinmanni, Lortet, Arch. Mus. Lyon, iii. 1883, p. 188, et iv. 1887, p. 11, pl. v.; Tristram, 
West. Palestine, Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 156. 

Testudo campanulata, D’ Aubusson, Bull. Inst. Hgypte, fase. vi. 5th May, 1893. 


1 g andl 9, neighbourhood of Alexandria; 1 g and 1 2, Maryut District. 


The depth more than half the length of the shell; carapace broadly notched in 
front, expanded behind the second costal; marginals forming a more or less serrated 
border, with the undivided supracaudal projecting beyond them. The nuchal shield 
narrow, elongate, and triangularly unguiculate; first vertebral more or less rounded 
anteriorly, slightly broader than long; second nearly as long as broad; third 
quadrangular, about one-fourth broader than long ; fourth hexagonal, broad anteriorly, 
its posterior equalling a little more than one half its anterior breadth; fifth hexagonal, 
much broader posteriorly than anteriorly, but not broader than the third vertebral. 
The gular about two-thirds the length of the humeral suture ; pectoral slightly shorter 
than the humeral suture ; abdominal more than twice as long as the humeral suture, 
and as long as the conjoint femoral and anal sutures; the anal four times as long 
as the femoral suture. Head of moderate size; an azygos supranasal succeeded by 
two large frontonasals ; a single prefrontal followed by a rather small frontal, broad 
anteriorly but narrow posteriorly, embraced laterally by a very large shield, covering 
the rest of the upper surface of the head. A number of supraorbital scales, and 
a large temporal plate. Anterior surface of the fore limb covered with a few very 
large imbricate scutes in three longitudinal and five transverse series, the scale 
at the elbow-joint projecting in a strong point. No enlarged femoral tubercle. 

Colour yellowish or pale greenish yellow; the plates of the carapace more or less 
margined with brown or blackish, restricted in the vertebrals chiefly to their anterior 
and lateral margins, and in the costals to their anterior and external-lateral margins. 
The plastron yellow, with a dark-brown spot about the middle of the anterior border 
of the abdominal, and, occasionally, a much smaller similarly coloured spot on the outer 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


H.Gronveld del. et lith 


TBS WIDXO) IITA SUL, 


@, nat. size. Suburbs of Alexandria. 


a “a 
4 i go ni Ve Poi) 
pith h yi . Pet tat ) 
ae Oe ihe 
a - im eal 
i Oy oe ' 
i Ta 
if 


! in i he - 


aut ie Th 


y 


ue Y 
ye 


<> 
ip a ra 


be oil 
1 ei 


* is ae 
7 ‘ 


TESTUDO LEITHILI. 29 


margin of the front border of the pectoral. Head yellowish or dusky, with some 
dark brown on its upper surface. 

The shell of the female attains only to 120 millimétres in length. 

As in 7. thera, Pallas, and 7. marginata, Schoepff, the hind lobe of the plastron is 
movable in the adult. 

This species is distinguished from 7. marginata, Schoepff, by its much smaller size, 
shorter and deeper carapace, backwardly projecting supracaudal, extremely large 
scales on the fore limb, and by its coloration. In 7. marginata the adult is nearly 
black, each shield has generally a small greenish-yellow spot, and there is a large black 
spot on each shield of the plastron. 

An example of this species was obtained by Lefébvre in Egypt and is still preserved 
in the Paris Museum. It was referred by A. Duméril to 7. marginata, Schoepft. 
There is also a specimen in the Berlin Museum from Egypt, identified by Lichtenstein 
as 7. greca. 

In 1869, the British Museum received a small collection of Reptiles from Sind, 
presented by Dr. Leith. It contained a new species of land-tortoise to which 
Dr. Giinther gave the name of 7. leithit. 

In 1875, Dr. Lortet received a land-tortoise from the neighbourhood of Alexandria. 
He considered it to be distinct from 7. marginata, Schoepff, and named it after its 
discoverer M. Kleinmann. Dr. Lortet presented one of M. Kleinmann’s specimens 
(a female) to the British Museum, so that when Mr. Boulenger came to prepare his 
‘Catalogue of Chelonia’ he had before him the types of 7. letthit and T. kleinmanni. 
The result of his comparison of the two has been to establish the specific identity of 
T. kleinmanni, Lortet, with T. leithii, Gunther. 

No example of 7. leithii, Giinther, has been recorded either from Sind or from 
any locality to the east of Southern Syria, since Dr. Giinther first described the species. 
In view, however, of the facts that the land-tortoise of Egypt, which, according to 
Lortet, occurs in great numbers about Alexandria, was overlooked by the naturalists 
of the French Expedition in the end of last century, and that, up to 1875, it had only 
been reported from Egypt on two occasions, it might seem, to some, premature to 
conclude that it does not exist in Sind. The most likely explanation of its presence 
there, however, may possibly be that Dr. Leith’s specimen had been carried thither, 
by some native, either from Egypt, or perhaps from the north-western shore of the 
Persian Gulf, and had been sold to Dr. Leith as a Sind tortoise. 

Dr. Lortet gives the following interesting account of this species :—‘‘ Le 7. klein- 
manni n’a été trouvé, jusqu’a aujourd’hui, que dans une région trés limitée de Afrique. 
Je lai recu en 1875, pour la premiere fois, d’Alexandrie, ot elle a été découverte en 
trés grande quantité par M. Kleinmann. Je J'ai trouvée aussi a Damiette et aux 
environs de Port Said. Malgré mes recherches des plus attentives, je n’ai point vu 
cette charmante petite espéce dans les environs du Caire, ce qui me ferait croire qu'elle 


30 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


est spéciale au Delta et a la Basse-Egypte. Autour d’Alexandrie, on la rencontre 
abondamment dans des herbes du rivage et sur les bords des lacs salés on saumatres. 
Elle se nourrit surtout de différentes espéces de Salsolacées et de Statices. Elle 
pénétre aussi souvent dans les cultures et les jardins. 

“En 1880, un savant voyageur, M. Barbey, de Genéve, m’a communiqué un 
T. kleinmanni trouvé par lui, sur le sable du déserte Egypto-Syrien prés d’El-Arisc, 
Vancienne Rhinocoloura. 

« A moins que la température ne s’abaisse considérablement en Egypte, comme cela a 
eu lieu pendant lVhiver 1879-80, cette espéce ne s'engourdit pas, et surtout ne s’enterre 
pas comme les 7’. ibera et marginata. Elle reste, au contraire, trés alerte pendant la 
saison hivernale. A Lyon, elle entre en somnolence dés que la température moyenne 
s'abaisse 4 +8, mais cependant, elle ne cherche point a se cacher sous le sol. Elle se 
contente de s’abriter au milieu des feuilles mortes ou des herbes. Elle ne mange alors 
plus rien et périt facilement si on la laisse exposée & une température de quelques 
degrés au-dessous de zéro. Les TZ. ibera, marginata et greca supportent, au contraire, 
sans paraitre en souffrir, une température s’abaissant 4 —8 ou —10. 

“T’accouplement se fait en mars et avril. En mai, les ceufs sont pondus par la 
femelle, qui les abandonne simplement sur le sol. Ces ceufs, de la grosseur de ceux 
d'un pigeon, sont presque enti¢rement sphériques et teints en rose éclair. Lorsque la 
température est suffisamment élevée, les jeunes sortent de lceuf vingt jours aprés la 
ponte. Ils sont entiérement jaunes et atteignent 4 peine la dimension d'une piéce 
dun france.” 

My own observations fully verify those of Dr. Lortet regarding its absence in the 
southern part of the delta. I made a very careful search for it in the neighbourhood 
of Cairo, but failed to find it, and all the natives who were questioned on the subject 
assured me that they had never seen it in the vicinity of that city. 

It has probably a considerable range to the west of Egypt, as Peters records, under 
the name of 7. greca, a tortoise collected by Rohlfs and Stecker on their journey to the 
Oasis of Kufra. 

Pliny states that numbers of tortoises wandered in the deserts of Africa, and A‘lian 
that they were found in the Libyan desert, a statement which is repeated by Marmol ; 
but neither Prospero Alpini nor Maillet have mentioned a land-tortoise as present in 
Egypt. 

The Arabic name of the land-tortoise is cbsl, or solhafa—pronounced, according to 
Mr. D. A. Cameron! and Dr. Walter Innes, zihiifa. 


I am indebted to Dr. Keatinge for three photographic views of a land-tortoise, three 
living specimens of which he had purchased for the Museum of the Medical School at 


1 Arabic-English Vocabulary, 1892, p. 126. 


TESTUDO LEITHII. dl 


Cairo. The species is Testudo ibera, Pallas, hitherto known only from North-west 
Africa, Syria, Asia Minor, ‘Transcaucasia, and Persia. ‘The native from whom they were 
bought informed Dr. Keatinge that he had got them from the Sudan, and that he had 
had them alive for more than fourteen years. ‘There is no evidence that this tortoise 
occurs in Lower Egypt, but, like some other reptilian species, it may possibly range 
from Algeria and Tunisia to the Eastern Sudan, and, in view of this, I have thought 
it as well to record these specimens. ‘The conjecture, however, that they, in all 
likelihood, were brought to Egypt from Syria is perhaps more probable than that they 
were oi Sudanese origiu. If this species does occur in the Sudan, it is likely to be 
distributed in the direction of Wadi Halfa and the plain of Suakin. 

Riippell! records that Zestudo calcarata, Schneider, is present in the Province of 
Dongola, where it is known as ‘‘ Abu Gefne.” 


Aristotle? relates a tale about the tortoise and the viper, the only interest of which 
is its parallelism to the myth prevalent in India regarding the cobra and the mungoose. 
As is well known, it is said that when a mungoose has been bitten by a cobra it 
searches for a particular plant which it eats, and that it serves as an antidote to the 
poison of the snake. Aristotle had heard that when a tortoise swallows a viper (which 
a tortoise never does, any more than does the mungoose eat the manguswail) it searches 
for and eats the origan or marjoram (to which it is probably partial at all times for its 
aromatic pungency), and he states that some one had mentioned the fact that he had 
seen a tortoise do so several times, but that at last when it was deprived of access to 
the origan, after having swallowed a viper, it died. 

Wilkinson states that a tortoise-headed god occurs as one of the genii on the tombs, 
but he does not state on what tomb, and he adds that the tortoise was not one of the 
sacred animals of Egypt. 

But, in the beginning of the Christian era, it seems as if some myth, probably 
cosmogonic, regarding this animal prevailed in the then Roman Province of Egypt, 
because while in Alexandria, in 1880, I was informed, on reliable authority, that when 
the obelisk was being taken down, for removal to New York, it was found resting on a 
small bronze figure of a tortoise. ‘This obelisk, which had stood for ages at Heliopolis, 
had been removed thence and placed in front of the Casarium at Alexandria in the 
time of Tiberius. A fragment of a claw of the tortoise was presented to me, and I 
afterwards gave it to the Indian Museum, Calcutta®. An analysis of a portion of it 
proved it to be a true bronze. 


* Neue Wirbelih., Amph. p. 4. 


* Hist. An. iii. (1883), par M. J. Barthélemy St.-Hilaire, pp. 157-158. 
® Anderson, Cat. & Hand-Book, Archeological Collection, pt. ii. 1883, p. 471. 


bo 


THE REPTILES OF. EGYPT. 


O93 


TRIONYCHID. 


TRIONYX. 
Trionyx, part., Geoffr. St.-Hil. Ann. Mus. xiv. 1809, p. 1. 


TRIoNYX TRIUNGUIS, Forskal. (Plate ITI.) 


Le Trionyx d’ Egypte, Geoffroy St.-Hil. Descr. de PEgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, pp. 115-120, 
pl. i., et ed. 8vo (Panchouke), 1829, xxiv. Hist. Nat. vi. pp. 1-18, pl. i. 

Testudo triunguis, Forskal, Descr. An. 1775, p. 1x. 

Trionyx niloticus, Gray, Syn. Rept. 1831, p. 46; Riippell, Mus. Senck. i. 1845, p. 298; Gray, 
Cat. Sh. Rept. i. 1855, p. 68, skull, pl. xlii. figs. 2 a-2 d. 

Trionyx egyptiacus, Geottr. Ann. Mus. xiv. 1809, p. 12, pls. i. & u.; Merrem, Syst. Amph. 1820, 
p- 20; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil. sér.) v. 1862, 
p- 175; id. op. cit. (vii. sér.) viii. 18, 1865, p. 126; Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, 
1880, p. 208; Tristram, West. Palestine, Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 157. 

Gymnopus egyptiacus, Dum. & Bibr. 11, 1835, p. 484. 

Trionyx labiatus, Bell, Test. 1837, pls. 18, 19, 20. 

Tyrse nilotica, Gray, Cat. Tort. 1844, p. 48; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 88; Petherick’s Travels 
Cent. Afr. ii. 1869, Append. p. 189; Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept. i. 1870, p. 108; Ann. & Mag. 
N. H. (4) xi. 1873, p. 470. 

Trionyx mortoni, Hallow. Proc. Ac. Philad. ii. (1844) p. 120. 

Aspidonectes aspilus, Cope, Proc. Ac. Philad. 1859, p. 295. 

Fordia africana, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 219; Petherick’s Travels Cent. Afr. 11.1869, Append. 
p. 190; Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept. i. 1870, p. 100; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 43, figs. 1 ald. 
Trionyx triunguis, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1876, p. 117; Blgr. Cat. Chelon. &c. 1889, p. 254; 

Anderson, Herpet. of Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 95; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. ser. 2, xvii. 
(xxxvil.) 1896, p. 16; id. op. cit. p. 277. 
12. Nile at Cairo. Dr. Walter Innes. 


1 2? juv. Phile. 
1 2 juv. Wadi Halfa. Major Henry d’Alton Harkness. 


Carapace moderately convex, more or less depressed in the mesial line. Proboscis 
equalling the length of the eye. Upper labial folds and nuchal flaps well developed, 
the latter with rounded tubercles. Skin of the upper surface of the shell covered with 
tubercles arranged more or less in longitudinal wavy lines, most apparent in the young. 
Plastron with two pairs of callosities well developed in the adult and more or less 
rugose. Claws strong and pointed. Upper surface olive or olive-brown, profusely 
spotted with white dots with dark margins, well marked in the young and in half-grown 


IA SOG, 


gypt. 


ep 


Reptiles of I 


ld del et lth, 


= 


UIS. 


TRIUNG 


TRIONYX 


di Halfa. 


a 


juv¢?.W 


nat 


i - TT ay 


i CVRGE sy 


1 
iy ea 
es 


TRIONYX TRIUNGUIS. 383 


specimens, but obscure or obsolete in adults ; margin of fleshy disk yellowish; under 
surface white, but the posterior margin of the fleshy disk marked with dusky. 

It attains to a metre in length 1. 

Common in the Nile in Lower and Upper ae and, according to James Burton 2, 
present in the lakes in the Wadi Natrin. . 

In the month of April it deposits from 50 to 60 eggs on the sandbanks, where they 
are hatched by the heat of the sun. 

The Arabs say that the Nile turtle searches for the eggs of the crocodile, and that it 
scratches them out of the sand and devours them. Maillet®, however, who was an 
excellent observer, did not credit the existence of this habit. Sonnini4, on the other 
hand, not only believed in it, but has stated that the turtle devoured the newly 
hatched young of the crocodile ; and James Burton ® has recorded that it is not so much 
the ichneumon as the Nile turtle that destroys the young of the crocodile. This may 
be possible, but that so thoroughly an aquatic animal as a 7rionyx should leave the 
water in search of food is highly improbable. 

Fish and shell-fish appear to be its staple food, which it procures and devours under 
water. 

Dr. J. E. Gray considered that the turtle of the Nile found in the reaches of the 
river at Khartoum was not only specifically, but generically distinct from the turtle of 
Lower Egypt, and he described it under the name of Mordia africana. His reasons for 
regarding it as generically distinct from Zrionya must unquestionably be rejected ; but 
at first sight the marked differences between the forms of the two skulls would seem to 
favour the supposition of their specific distinctness, whereas on the other hand the two 
animals, in external characters, are alike. Agassiz®, writing in 1857, held, however, 
that it was impossible to distinguish the species of Trionychidew by their external 
characters, and that nothing short of a careful examination of their jaws, and especially 
of the skull, would reveal the generic characters. 

The alveolar surfaces of the Khartoum turtle are characterized by great breadth, 
associated with a short, truncated, broad snout, whilst the same surfaces of the turtle 
of the Lower Nile are narrow and the snout is sharp and pointed. 

Mr. Boulenger, who was the first to direct special attention to these extreme forms of 
jaws, points out that no young specimens of Zrionya have been met with in which the 
alveolar surfaces are broad and molar in their character, and that all young specimens 
have sharp and edged jaws. He holds that the two forms of alveolar surface are found 


1 Prospero Alpini (1553-1617) says, Rerum Agypt. lib. iv. cap. 2 (1735), p. 203, that it attains to 
such a size that the carapace was used for making shields, which is still the case in Nubia. 
* Add. MSS. B.M. 25,623. 
° Descr. de Egypte, 1735, p. 33*. 
* L. c. i. pp. 334, 335. 5 iby & 
Contrib. to Nat. Hist. of U.S.A. 1857, 2 pls. 4to, p. 396. 


34 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


in one and the same species, and he is inclined to explain the existence of a broad 
alveolar surface, in animals externally identical with those having a narrow surface, by 
the nature of their food. He maintains that a broad alveolar surface is associated with a 
conchifragous diet, and a narrow alveolar surface and sharp beak with an ichthyophagous 
diet; but, at the same time, Mr. Boulenger points out that the final solution of this 
most interesting problem rests with those who can observe the animals in nature. In 
view of this suggestion, it may be mentioned that there could be no better river for 
conducting such observations than the Nile, where the two types of skull are so well 
represented. 

This species occurs in some of the rivers of Syria, throughout the Nile and its 
tributaries, and in the river systems of Africa, from Somaliland to Senegambia. 

The Arabic name of this turtle is x. »3=terseh. 

The turtle was not a sacred animal to the Egyptians, and the representations of 
it are rare. The conventional figure which Egyptologists regard as representing a 
tortoise seems to me rather to suggest a freshwater turtle. The body of the supposed 
chelonian hieroglyph is a depressed oval, and the neck is very long—two features 
which, while distinctive of the Nile turtle (7. tréwnguis), are in no way characteristic 
of any African land-tortoise. Figures of this kind are met with in the ‘ Book of the 
Dead,’ and ina number of inscriptions, ¢. g. on the outside of the beautiful inner 
coffin of Nesi Pa-Ur Shef, of the XVIIIth Dynasty, preserved in the Fitzwilliam 
Museum, Cambridge !, and in an inscription at Kom Ombos reproduced by Rosellini ?. 

The cemeteries of the New Race of Men at Naquada and Ballas, already referred 
to, contained the body in a contracted position on the floor of the grave. Along with 
the body were stone vases and vessels of pottery of various kinds, that had doubtless 
contained food for the deceased. Before the face of each skeleton there generally 
lay a slate palette, and, in some cases, more than one. These slates bore greenish 
stains, and parts of them were worn into hollows. By their sides lay one to four smooth 
pebbles, also stained with the same colour, and, associated with them, were found 
shells and little bags filled with ground green malachite, and chips of the unground 
material. Professor Petrie and Mr. Quibell’s explanation of their occurrence is 
that the new race had adopted the custom in yogue among the early Egyptians of 
painting the area around the eyes green. ‘The interest attached to the discovery of 
these implements of the toilet from a zoological standpoint is that many of the 
palettes are fashioned in the form of the turtle of the Nile. 


1 Budge (H. A. W.), Cat. Egypt. Coll. 1893. Since the above was written, Dr. Budge has shown to me, 
on the inside of the coffin (No. 6678 B.M.) of Heru-net Atef, a priest of Amen Ra, dating from 500 to 
350 B.C., two characteristic representations of the turtle. 

* Mon. Egitto della Nubia, 1832, vol. iii. pl. xxix. 


STENODACTYLUS. 


on 


SQUAMATA. 
LACERTILIA. 
GECKONID/A. 


STENODACTYLUS. 
Stenodactylus, Fitzinger, Neue Class. Rept. 1826, p. 18. 


Digits not dilated, straight, clawed, covered below with keeled scales, the central 
longitudinal row enlarged in the form of carinated lamelle ; sides of digits dentated 
or fringed. Body covered with juxtaposed, almost granular, scales, with or without 
intermixed large tubercles. Przeanal pores present. 


Before considering the species of Stenodactylus found in Egypt it is desirable to 
recall the nature of the scaling of the under surface of the digits. In S. elegans, Fitz., 
there is, é. g. on the third finger, a longitudinal row of 20 to 22, more or less tricarinate, 
slightly imbricate lamelle, with a row of minute, serrately pointed scales external to 
it. ‘The upper surface of one of the principal digits is covered at its middle with four 
or five scales, those of the external row being directed outwardly, and somewhat 
distally. This arrangement of the external dorsal scales confers a somewhat dentated 
appearance to the sides of the digits. In the species which I have named S. petrii, an 
additional longitudinal row of small scales occurs outside the lamella, 7. ¢. external to 
the single row of the previous species, and the outer row of the dorsal scales becomes 
somewhat enlarged and projects as a fringe, most developed on the digits of the hind 
feet. 

The under surfaces of the digits of Ceramodactylus dorie, Blanford1, are covered 
throughout the greater part of their extent by minute, uniformly sized, more or less 
imbricate scales arranged in oblique series but also longitudinally. Towards the 
distal ends of the digits they become fewer in number, and there is a tendency 
to the formation of a central row somewhat slightly larger than the scales external 
to it. In C. affinis, Murray, in which the scales on the under surface have much 
the same characters as in the former species, those occupying the mesial line of 
the digit manifest a perceptible increase in size over the others, so that they may be 
regarded as illustrating the passage of these scales into the well-defined central 

* The genus Holodactylus, which Prof. Boettger (Zool. Anz. xvi, 1893, p. 113) regarded as a gecko and 
referred to the neighbourhood of Ceramodactylus, has been pointed out by Mr. Boulenger (Ann. & Mag. 
N. H. (ser. 6) xvi. Aug. 1895, p. 166) to be an Eublepharid. The figure which Messrs. Lucas and Frost 
have given of the under surface of the digits of Ceramodactylus dameus, L. & F. (Horn Exped. C. Australia, 
Feb. 1896, pp. 114 & 119, pl. ix. fig. 2, and Proc. Roy. Soe. Vict. viii. (n. s.) 1895, pp. 1-4), conclusively 
proves it not to be a Ceramodactylus, but possibly a Diplodactylus. 

r2 


56 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


lamelle of Stenodactylus, and, moreover, towards the tips of the digits, this passage is 
complete in the case of afew. I am therefore inclined to regard Ceramodactylus as 
only entitled to subgeneric rank. 

One of the supposed features of Stenodactylus was the absence of preeanal pores. 
They are, however, present in one of the types, and in 13 out of 19 males, and 10 out 
of 24 females, examined by me. 

The simplest form of preanal pore is met with in S. orientalis, in which it occurs as 
a single opening in a slightly enlarged scale occupying the mesial line. In S. elegans 
two enlarged scales separated mesially by a considerable interval are perforated, each 
by a single opening. 

Similar structures are present in Ceramodactylus doriw, but in the single specimen 
of C. affinis that has come under my observation, viz. a female, there are no traces of 
pores. In Crossobamon eversmanni there may be 3 or 4 pores, separated from one 
another in the mesial line, asin S. elegans and C. doriw, but in the very limited 
number of specimens extant of S. dumsdeni and S. petrii they are not present. 

In the genus Bunopus, which is allied to Stenodactylus, a line of enlarged scales 
extends from the preanal region for a considerable distance along the thighs. As 
many as thirty of these scales may carry pores, but not in a continuous line. In some 
specimens the pores may cease on the base of the thighs and appear again more 
distally, so that here we have an illustration of the passage of preeanal into femoral 
pores. In Alsophylax there is a similar tendency, as in it there is a series of enlarged 
interfemoral scales bearing a relatively high number (9) of preanal pores. Although 
no pores occur on the thighs, the presence of enlarged scales suggests their occasional 
occurrence. I have, however, examined only three specimens of this genus. 

The tail in Stenodactylus is modified in two ways: it is either thick, cylindrical, and 
tapered very gradually to a rather blunt point, or it may be somewhat broad at the 
base, rapidly contracted behind this, becoming somewhat filiform, and ending in a 
fine point. The enlarged tubercles at its base are always present, and are especially 
well developed in the latter form of tail, and most so in the males, so that it is 
almost possible to determine the sexes by the degree of its development. 


A small gecko, with straight, non-dilated digits, covered below by more or less 
slightly imbricate, carinated, transverse lamelle, the sides of the digits finely dentate, 
and the body clad with small, nearly polygonal, juxtaposed scales, is found throughout 
Egypt. It was first described by Lichtenstein in 1823, under the term Ascalabotes 
sthenodactylus 1, and in these words: “Asc. supra albo- et brunneo-ocellatus. 5'. Aegypt. 
et Nubia.” Fitzinger®, in 1826, selected it as the type of a new genus, which he 


‘ Doubl. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 1823, p. 102. 
* N. Class. Rept. 1826, p. 47. 


STENODACTYLUS. 37 


named Stenodactylus, using the specific name for the generic term, and designating the 
species S. elegans. The following! is a figure of one of the types from the Berlin 
Museum. 


Stenodactylus elegans, Fitzinger. 2. 
One of the types of Ascalabotes sthenodactylus, Licht., from Berlin Museum. 


Baron Cuvier, in the new edition of the ‘ Régne Animal, published in 1829, adopted 
the genus Stenodactylus and named the species S. gutéatus, basing it on certain figures 
in the ‘ Description de l' Egypte.’ One of these figures (plate v. fig. 2) is in every 
way so crude that it is impossible to gain from it any idea of what may have been the 
characters of the lizard which it was intended to represent. A second figure, however 
(Suppl. plate i. fig. 3) (not Suppl. plate i. fig. 2, as stated by Cuvier, which is 
Ptyodactylus lobatus = P. hasselquistii, Donndorff), he held represented the same 
species. ‘This figure, taken as a whole, is a good likeness of S. elegans, Fitzinger, the 
Asc. sthenodactylus, Licht. The other figure on Suppl. plate i., viz. fig. 4, Cuvier 
regarded as a species distinct from S. guttatus, but allied to it. 

The figure on which Cuvier based his S. guttatus (plate v. fig. 2) was described by 
Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire as “/’Agame ponctué” *, and Duméril and Bibron state 
that the description of the latter author was drawn up from a very imperfectly executed 
coloured drawing. 

While we learn nothing from pl. v. fig. 2, the figure (fig. 3) on Suppl. plate i. 
leaves no doubt as to the characters of Cuvier’s S. guttatus, which is unquestionably 
identical with the Ascalabotes sthenodactylus, Licht. 


* By the courtesy of Dr. Tornier, of the Berlin Museum, I have, by means of an exchange with that 
Institution, become possessed of one of Lichtenstein’s types (figured above) preserved in its original bottle, 
and labelled “ Ascalabotes sthenodactylus, Cuv., Stenodactylus elegans, Fitzinger ; Nubia, Hemprich and 
Ehrenberg.” 

* Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, in 1855, in a footnote to his introduction to the work entitled ‘ Voyage autour 
du Monde sur la Frégatte Vénus,’ gives 1827 as the date of his parts ofethe Reptiles and Fishes of the 
‘ Description de Egypte.’ Born 16th December, 1805, he was appointed assistant to his father in 1824. 


38 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


When Audouin’s part of the ‘Description de l'Fgypte’ appeared !, it contained a 
description of the two figures (figs. 3 and 4) on Suppl. plate i. The former received 
from him the name Trapelus savignyi, while he regarded the latter as a variety of the 
same species. 

If Audouin’s text had been published before 1829, the year in which the new 
edition of the ‘Régne Animal’ appeared, it seems unlikely that Cuvier would have 
overlooked it, or intentionally ignored it; and as there is no reference by Audouin to 
Cuvier’s ‘ Régne Animal,’ the probability is that the portion of the ‘ Descr. de Egypte : 
written by Audouin was published about the same time as Cuvier’s work. 

The gecko (Suppl. pl. i. fig. 4) regarded by Audouin as a variety of 7. savignyi is 
a distinct species, as pointed out by Cuvier, and is the species which I have recently 
described as S. petrit from specimens collected by Prof. Petrie at Tel el Amarna. 

Duméril and Bibron considered all the foregoing figures in the ‘ Descr. de l’Egypte’ 
as representing one species, but their illustration of S. guttatus, Cuvier, was taken 
from a specimen still preserved in the Paris Museum, and bearing the number 1765. 
Professor Vaillant has been so good as to permit me to examine this specimen, which, 
however, is not the lizard figured by Savigny on Suppl. pl. i. fig. 3, but is unmistakably 
identical with fig. 4 of the same plate—that is, with the lizard which Cuvier regarded 
as distinct from his S. guttatus, but which is specifically the same as S. petrit. 

Gasco obtained two specimens of a Stenodactylus from near Cairo, and in his identi- 
fication of them had been puzzled to reconcile them with Audouin’s figures, being 
unaware that they represented two distinct species. 


I have experienced considerable difficulty in arriving at a conclusion, satisfactory to 
myself, as to the position in which the geckos S. wilkinsonii and S. mauritanicus 
stand towards S. elegans. I have not been singular in this experience, as Mr. Bou- 
lenger, who at first regarded S. wilkinsonii ? as a distinct species, afterwards considered 
it and S. mauritanicus to be specifically identical with S. elegans. He says*?:—‘ The 
form that I regard as the typical S. guttatus has a moderately pointed snout, the dorsal 
granules are rather large, convex and coarsely granular, the rostral shield enters the 


* On the 19th March, 1825, Corbiére, the Minister Secretary of State for the Dept. of the Interior, 
addressed a letter to M. Jules-César Savigny requesting him to bring his part of the ‘ Descr. de Egypte’ to 
an end. It is stated that at that time Savigny had supplied no part of the manuscript, nor even the whole 
of the drawings of his section of the work, and that he was unable to complete them, as he had lost his 
sight through his labours over the microscope. He was therefore desired to supply M. Victor Audouin, 
formerly one of his pupils, with such materials as he could furnish for the completion of the Natural 
History. From the evidence of contemporary literature it appears highly probable that Audouin’s portion 
on the reptiles did not appear until 1829. 

* Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 18. 

* Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 108. 


STENODACTYLUS. 39 


nostril, and the hind limb reaches barely the axil. Stouter specimens with shorter 
snout have been named S. mauritanicus. In Gray’s S. wilkinsonii the snout is more 
pointed, the dorsal scales flat and subimbricate, the rostral is excluded from the 
nostril, and the hind limb reaches the shoulder. All these differences, however, break 
down, as specific characters, on examination of large series of specimens, and I do not 
even see my way to distinguishing the three forms as varieties. A specimen from Bou- 
Saada, collected by M. Lataste, has the short head and short limbs of S. mauritanicus ; 
the dorsal scales very small, flattish, smooth, but not imbricate; and the nostril well 
separated from the rostral.” 

In 20 specimens collected at Gizeh, distinctly referable to S.. elegans, Fitz., the 
fore limb generally reaches the snout, but in a few it may fall somewhat short of it, 
while in two specimens it is In advance of the snout when laid forwards. The hind 
limb when stretched forwards generally touches the axilla, or it may be a little before 
it, while in two out of the 20 it reaches the shoulder. 

In the type of S. wilkinsonii the fore limb when laid forwards is in advance of 
the snout, and the hind limb reaches or nearly reaches the shoulder, and in these 
respects it is generally resembled by seven other specimens from Middle and Upper 
Egypt. 

The fore limb in the type of S. mauwritanicus ' has the same proportions as is general 
among the Gizeh geckos, but in thirteen other specimens grouped along with it the 
fore limb, in three of them, is in advance of the snout. ‘The hind limb of the type 
resembles that of the Gizeh geckos in reaching the axilla; but among four of the 
thirteen it falls short of the axilla, whereas in two it resembles the hind limb of 
S. wilkinsonii in reaching the shoulder. 

No specimen among the Gizeh geckos has both its fore and hind limbs like those of 
S. wilkinsonii, neither in any of those grouped round S. mauritanicus are the limbs of 
the same length as in the aforementioned type; but in some of the Gizeh geckos their 
fore limbs are as long as in S. wilkinsonii, and in others their hind limbs may be so. 
In the same way, in some of the specimens grouped around S. mauritanicus we 
find short hind limbs associated with long fore limbs, and vice versd. Leaving other 
exceptional cases out of consideration, it may be said that the limbs of S. mauritanicus 
agree in their proportions with those of the Gizeh geckos. 

In the type of S. elegans, stated to have come from Nubia, the fore limb has the 
length of the fore limb of S. wi/kinsonii, while its hind limb falls short of that of the 
Gizeh geckos, and corresponds to the exceptionally short hind limbs of the S. mauri- 
tanicus group. I have consequently experienced some difficulty as to the position this 


* [have to record my indebtedness to Professor Vaillant for having permitted me to examine the type of 
S. mauritanicus, Guichenot, preserved in the Paris Museum, and further for having forwarded another 
of the types (No. 2339, 3) to London for my inspection, and for comparison with my Egyptian specimens of 
this genus. 


40) THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


specimen should occupy, but it evidently stands between the Gizeh geckos and those 
found in the delta and other localities, and that conform more or less to 8. mawritanicus. 

As regards the digits, those of the Gizeh geckos are not quite so slender as those of 
the type of S. wilkinsonii and of the geckos from Middle and Upper Egypt; but as 
variations in these respects are frequent, little or no importance need be attached to 
them. On the other hand, the digits of the type of S. mauritanicus, and of those 
associated with it, are generally stouter than in the others, and in some cases they are 
very markedly so (fig. 5, Pl. IV.), but other specimens have digits differing but little 
from those of S. wilkinsoni. 

The nostril in the geckos found at the Pyramids of Gizeh is, without exception, 
defined by the rostral, first labial, and three nasals; but there are some cases in which 
the rostral feebly approaches the nostril, so that it is difficult to say whether or not it 
enters it. In the type of S. wilkinsonii the rostral is excluded, and the nasal formula 
is Ist labial, 3 nasals. ‘Lhis arrangement prevails among seven out of nine specimens 
which I have grouped along with S. wilkinsonti. In one of the nine the rostral enters 
on one side into the formation of the nostril, while in another specimen the nasal 
formula is R. L. 3N. Im this individual we have thus all the characters of the 
nostril of the Gizeh and Algerian geckos. 

In the type of S. elegans (Nubia) the nostril is formed the same way as in the 
Gizeh geckos. 

In the geckos around the Pyramids of Gizeh the upper labials vary from 10 to 14, 
and the lower from 9 to 12. 

In wilkinsonii, on the other hand, the former are 14, and the latter 11, and in other 
specimens that may be associated with it the upper labials vary from 12 to 15, and the 


Stenodactylus elegans, Vitz. 


S. mauritanicus, Guichenot. Oran, Algeria (Professor Doumergue). 


lower from 11 to 13. In the type of S. elegans there are 14 or 15 upper and 
12 or 13 lower labials. In the type of S. mauwritanicus there are 9 upper and 8 to 10 
lower labials; and in a specimen from Oran there are 12 upper and 11 lower labials. 


STENODACTYLUS. 4] 


In specimens from the delta of Egypt and from the Eastern Sudan both the upper 
and the lower labials fall as low as 10 and rise to 13. 

The gecko described by Guichenot as mauritanicus is more stoutly built than the 
Gizeh geckos, and its head is somewhat heavier and slightly broader, whereas the type 
of S. wilkinsonii in its general form resembles the Gizeh sand-geckos. 

In the delta of the Nile, near the sea, geckos with the heavier body of mauritanicus, 
and with its short and stout limbs and digits, are present (PI. IV. fig. 5); but at Luxor 
(fig. 3) individuals of this type occur, but with more slender limbs and digits, and with 
the nostrils of wilkinsonii (fig. 4). These seem to link the Algerian geckos to those 
of Gizeh. On the other hand, individuals are met with (fig. 6) in the Eastern Sudan 
(Durrur and Suakin) which must be regarded as intermediate between those of the 
Nile delta and those of Algeria. 

It is noteworthy that the skin of the geckos of the Nile valley proper is not so 
coarse as that of those inhabiting Algeria and the seaward face of the delta, both of 
which areas are exposed to the storms of the Mediterranean ; and that similar differences 
exist in the genus Péyodactylus, in which Syrian and Algerian specimens have harder 
and coarser skins than those found in Egypt. 

After a careful consideration of the foregoing facts in all their aspects, the safe 
conclusion seems to be that the specimens here dealt with are all referable to one 
species, viz. S. elegans, Fitz., as the variations they manifest are so unstable as to 
be beyond the reach of clear definition. 

The gecko from Bou-Saada obtained by M. Lataste I consider to be identical with 
two specimens from Batna recorded by Strauch, and referred by him to S. wilkinsonii, 
Gray. Since 1885, the British Museum has become possessed of two geckos from 
between Batna and Biskra, identical with the specimen from Bou-Saada. Mr. Boulenger 
informs me that they were part of the same collection from which Strauch obtained 
his Batna lizards. On comparing them with Strauch’s description of the Batna lizards, 
it is apparent that they are one and the same species, and quite distinct from 
S. wilkinsonii, Gray, = S. elegans, Fitz. I believe them to be identical with the 
species I have described as S. petrii. Consequently the two species exist side by side 
in Algeria, as they do on the plain of Tel el Amarna, in Egypt. 


42 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


STENODACTYLUS ELEGANS, Fitzinger. (Plate IV. figs. 1-6.) 


Ascalabotes sthenodactylus, Licht. Verz. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1823, p. 102. 

Stenodactylus elegans, Fitzinger, Neue Class. Rept. 1826, p. 47; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & 
Egypt, 1896, p. 95. 

Ayame ponctué, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Descr. de ?Hgypte, i. ?1827, pp. 129-180, pl. 5. fig. 2. 

Trapelus savignyi, Aud. Descr. de | Higypte, i. ? 1829, p. 167, suppl. pl. i. fig. 8, sed non fig. 4. 

Stenodactylus guttatus, Cuv. Rég. An. (n. ed.) ii. 1829, p. 58; part., Dum. & Bib. Hrpet. Génl. iii. 
1836, p. 434, sed non pl. 34. no. 2; Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 801; part., A. Dum. 
Cat. Méthod. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 47; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil. sér.) iv. 1862, 
p. 24; part., id. op. cit. xxxv. 1887, p. 67; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; Giinther, 
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 489; Gasco, Viag. Egitto, 1876, pt. ii. p.115; Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. 
Imp. Nat. Mose. liv. pt. 2, 1879, p. 35; Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Gesel. 1880, p. 194; 
Tristram, West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 153; Boulenger, Cat. Liz. B. M.i. 1885, p. 17; 
Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 107; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 218; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, 
2 ser. xvii. (xxxvii.) 1897, p. 277; Hart, Fauna and Flora of Sinai, 1891, p. 210; part., 
Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 1894, p. 76. = | 

Tolarenta wilkinsonii, Gray, Zool. Misc. 1842, p.59; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. 1885, p. 18, pl. iii. 
fig. 3%. 

Stenodactylus mauritanicus, Guichenot, Explor. Algér., Sc. Phys., Zool. v. 1850, p. 5, pl. 1. fig. 1; 
Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. 1862, -p. 25. 

Stenodactylus guttatus, var. mauritanica, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 306. 


1g. Mandara, east of Alexandria. Dr. Walter Innes. 

4 g and1 2. Ramleh, east of Alexandria. 

8 g and12 2. Pyramids of Gizeh. 

3 2. Telecel Amarna. Professor Petrie, D.C.L. &c. 

3 g and12@. Luxor, desert. 

1g. Wadi Halfa. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
1 gand1 2. Suakin. 

22. Durrur. 

1 g. Ras Gharib, Gulf of Suez. Mr. James Robertson. 


Head oviform, moderately large, larger in some than in others, distinct from the 
neck ; cheeks not swollen; snout moderately pointed, as long as the diameter of the 
eye, but variable; nostril more or less swollen, generally formed by the rostral, first 
labial, and three nasals, but occasionally the rostral may be partially or wholly excluded; 
9 to 15 upper and 8 to 15 lower labials; mental small, as broad as long. Hye large; 
ear oval, oblique, considerably smaller than half the diameter of the eye. Body-scales 
small, rounded, flat, or slightly convex, juxtaposed, smooth or more or less feebly 
keeled, those on the snout larger than those on the occiput, more or less hexagonal, 
granular, and generally obscurely keeled. Scales on the limbs but little larger than 
those on the body, tending to become subimbricate; scales on the under surface of 
the body smaller than the dorsal scales, nearly round, granular, and obtusely keeled. 


Reptiles of Egypt. IL WW, 


P.J.Smit'del.et ith. 


STENODACTYLUS ELEGANS. Fig. 1 ¢, Gizeh; Fig. 2 ¢ & Fig.3 ¢, Luxor; Fig. 4 @, Tel el Amara; Fig. 5 ¢, Ramleh; Fig. 6 ¢, Durrur. 


STENODACTYLUS PZTRII. Fig. 7, Tel el Amarna. TROPIOCOLOTES TRIPOLITANUS. Fig. 8, Gizeh. 


‘TROPIOCOLOTES STEUDNERI. Fig. 9, Luxor. PRISTURUS FLAVIPUNCTATUS. Fig. 10 ¢, Suakin. 


: rm Thy 
iy | 


STENODACTYLUS ELEGANS. 45 


Under surface of the digits with a longitudinal line of transverse, tricarinate, subimbri- 
cate lamelle, with a single row of small scales external to it; four to six rows of scales 
on the upper surface of the digits (3rd toe), the scales of the external row sharply 
pointed, projecting outwards, and forming a dentated border to the digits. Scales on 
the tail arranged in rings, largest on the dorsal surface, somewhat longer than broad, 
juxtaposed, and smooth, those on the under surface smaller. Limbs well developed, 
very variable in length, fore limb extending to or reaching beyond the snout, or falling 
short of it; the hind limb generally reaches to the axilla, may fall short of it, or may 
touch the shoulder; digits variable, longer and stouter in some than in others. Tail 
thick, not contracted behind the base, elongately conical, gradually tapered to a not 
very fine point, shorter than the body and head. 

Colour variable, frequently fawn or rich buff, reticulated with purplish brown, 
varying in tint, the reticulations enclosing whitish or yellow spots ; in others the upper 
surface is an almost uniform purplish brown, with feebly indicated darker reticulations, 
sometimes almost wholly lost, embracing small whitish or yellowish round spots, 
numerous in some, nearly absent in others; the body may also be covered with five 
broad purplish-brown more or less white-spotted bands, separated from each other by 
reticulated areas, the sides and limbs being white-spotted; a dark band, more or less 
present in many, passes from eye to eye round the occiput; the dorsal bands in others 
become broken up into large purplish-brown spots surrounded by reticulations and 
white spots; generally 8 to 10 purplish-brown bands on the tail, separated from each 
other by a large white black-margined spot, these spots becoming white bars towards 
the tip of the tail, but in some these white spots are entirely obsolete. Under surface 
of the body and limbs whitish, of the tail yellowish. The eyelid, anteriorly, has a rich 

white margin; the rugged and jagged sides of the pupil are bright yellow. 

The largest Egyptian specimen is a female, measuring 54 millim. from the snout to 
the vent, and the tail 40 millim. 

All the specimens of this gecko from the neighbourhood of the Pyramids of Gizeh 
were obtained on the margin of the desert, lying under stones resting on sand and 
gravel, and those from the sea-face of the delta (Ramleh and Mandara) were found 
under similar conditions but close to the sea. I never met with it running about. It 
may be said to be common at Gizeh, but less so along the sea-face. 

It has a wide range over Northern and North-eastern Africa, and extends into Asia. 

In Algeria it has been observed in many localities. I found it not uncommon at 
Suakin on the shores of the Red Sea, and I have received specimens from Durrur and 
from Ras Gharib. It has likewise recently been obtained from the banks of Lake 
Rudolf (Donaldson Smith). How far it may extend to the south, along the Nile 
valley, is unknown, but one of Hemprich and Ehrenberg’s specimens (fig. 1, p. 37) came 
from Nubia, and I am indebted to Dr. Penton for examples of it from Wadi Halfa. It 
occurs on the Mediterranean coast at Ydfa (Boulenger), and inland on the shores of 

G2 


44 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


the Dead Sea (Zristram), in Arabia Petreea (Lrankfort Museum), and the Sinaitic 
Peninsula (Hart). 

In Plate IV. I have figured some of the more marked phases of this lizard in the 
region with which this work deals. Figure 1 represents the Gizeh lizards; figs. 2 & 3 
are specimens from Luxor; fig. 4 from Tel el Amarna; fig. 5 from Ramleh, on the 
sea-face of the delta; and fig. 6 from Durrur. To these I am enabled to add the 
following figure of the specimen collected by Dr. Donaldson Smith on the shores of 
Lake Rudolf, Mr. Boulenger having kindly placed the specimen at my disposal for 
this purpose. 

Fig. 3. 


Stenodactylus elegans, Fitz. 
Lake Rudolf. (Genoa Museum.) 


A comparison of the foregoing figure with fig. 2, Pl. 1V., will bring out their close 
resemblance—indeed practical identity,—the only difference between them being that 
the Lake Rudolf specimen has a smaller head, as has been pointed out by 
Mr. Boulenger. 

Dr. Walter Innes informs me that the Arabs have only one name for lizards of the 


cus oF 


genera Stenodactylus and Tropiocolotes, viz. Qés:) Y22— bors abyad, or white bors; 
but, according to my experience, the term abyad is seldom used. 


STENODACTYLUS PETRII. 45 


STENODACTYLUS PETRII, Anderson. (Plate IV. fig. 7.) 


Trapelus savignyi, Aud. var. (non Dum. & Bibr.) Deser. de Egypte, i. 1829, p. 168; Suppl. Rept. 
pl. i. figs. 4. 1, 4. 2, and 4. 3, sed non Suppl. Rept. pl. i. figs. 3.1, 3.2, and 3. s. 

Stenodactylus guttatus, part., Dum. & Bibr. iii. (1836), p. 434, pl. 34. no. 2. 

Stenodactylus wilkinsonii (non Gray), Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil. sér.) xxxv. 1887, p. 67. 

Stenodactylus guttatus, part., Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 107 ; ? Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. 
Ges. Wien, xliv. 1895, p. 76. 

Stenodactylus petrii, Anders. Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 96. 


1$ and2 2. Telel Amarna. Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 


Head large, very distinct from the neck; cheeks swollen; snout short and 
moderately pointed, equalling the diameter of the eye; nostril swollen, defined by the 
first labial and three nasals; 12 to 15 upper and 11 to 14 lower labials; mental well 
developed, much broader than long. Eye very large ; ear moderate, slightly oval and 
vertical. Body covered with small, smooth, slightly convex scales, generally longer 
than broad, polygonal and somewhat smaller on the middle of the back than on the 
sides, where they are more rounded; they are largest on the snout, hexagonal, very 
slightly convex and rugose ; scales on the limbs as large as those on the sides, tending 
to become imbricate and feebly keeled on the humeral and femoral regions ; scales on 
the under surface of the body slightly imbricate, obscurely obtusely keeled. Under 
surface of the digits with a longitudinal row of transverse tricarinate lamelle, more or 
less imbricate, with two rows of small, distinctly pointed scales external to it; five or 
seven rows of scales on the upper surface of the third toe, about its middle; the outer 
row of dorsal scales of each digit forms a well-marked but not very prominent fringe 
most developed on the hind foot, each scale being expanded at its base and curved 
distally into a sharp point, the entire fringe being slightly downwardly curved. 
Scales on the tail arranged in rings, largest on the upper surface, somewhat larger 
than the largest body-scales, longer than broad, and more or less keeled; those 
of the under surface much smaller and rounded. Limbs long and slender; fore 
limb when laid forwards reaches beyond the snout, and the hind limb in advance of 
the shoulder. Digits moderately long and slender. ‘Tail contracted behind the 
basal swelling, rapidly tapered to a fine point, shorter than the body and head. 
No preanal pores, and no enlarged scales on the position occupied by these 
structures. 

General colour of the upper parts pale but rich fawn, with irregular dark brown 
markings, most pronounced on the head, feeble on the upper surface of the trunk, and 
tending to anastomose ; the most pronounced head-marking occurs behind the eye, 
and curving inwards tends to unite with its fellow of the opposite side; an ill-defined 


46 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


pale brown band from the ear along the side; tail banded to its tip with dark brown ; 
chin to vent and sides of belly whitish; under surface of limbs and tail yellowish. 


2. 3 

mm mm 
SHaOKUNE 1H) THEM oosscaaoacanonossaaance 60 54 
Weng thvotsheadeeessereeseeeeeee rere 18 18 
Waaliln @# InewG) .coococancpoceqanancn.08 14 14 
WEG 1 1H) CHM, .nocc0q0ccq0nc00000 53 51 


This species differs from S. elegans by the characters indicated in the subjoined 
synopsis of the species. It has decided affinities to Crossobamon eversmanni, Boettger. 

Nothing is known regarding its habits. ‘The specimens were collected for me by 
Professor Petrie, while he and his staff were engaged excavating on the plain of 
Tel el Amarna. 

As has already been stated, it has been found at Bou-Saada, in Algeria, close on 
2000 feet above the sea; at Batna (3350 feet), and also between Batna and Biskra. 
The latter place, on the margin of the Sahara, stands only 360 feet above the sea, and 
the oasis of Tuggurt, at about the same altitude, is distant only 156 miles due south. I 
am further indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Boulenger for the opportunity of examining 
a specimen of this species collected by M. Lataste at Mairer, on the way between Biskra 
and Tugegurt. Moreover, Dr. Franz Werner’s description of the Stenodactylus obtained 
by him between Mairer and Tuggurt suggests the probability that it also is this species. 

The only other example that I have seen is the one from Egypt, preserved in the 
Paris Museum, and figured by Duméril and Bibron. 


The following is a synopsis of the species :— 


Synopsis of the Species. 
A. No enlarged tubercles on the body. 
1. Scales on the body of nearly uniform size, not smaller on the middle of the 
back; digits with fine lateral Biocenter, tail elongately conical, not 
tapered (OD Bis OOS 5 6 6 6 . 8S. elegans. 
. Scales on the body not of uniform size, sails, on “the afte of the ‘non 5 
tail broad at the base, contracted behind it, and tapered to a fine point. 


Limbs and digits slender; digits distinctly frmged . . . . . . . . S. petrii. 
B. Enlarged tubercles on the body ; digits fringed. 
Gh NOMGBIS FeO, MNO 6 6 5 6 6 o 6 6 6 0 0 0 5 6 ol «Sh heii, 


ib NGMTENS ees pipe 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 56 6 0 0 6 0 Sh OMaRMliS. 


TROPIOCOLOTES. AT 


TROPIOCOLOTES. 
Tropiocolotes, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 306. 


Digits slightly laterally compressed, straight, not dilated, covered below with ribbed 
or keeled, slightly imbricate, transverse lamelle; no lateral fringe. Body covered 
above and below with imbricate, strongly keeled, or nearly smooth scales. Lower 
eyelid rudimentary, upper feebly developed; pupil round. Large chin-shields. Pre- 
anal pores present or absent; no femoral pores. Heh. 


The transverse lamelle besides being slightly imbricate have their free margins 
somewhat dentate. Twelve to thirteen lamelle are present on the second and third 
toes of 7. tripolitanus, and fifteen to twenty on the corresponding digits of 7. stewdneri. 
External to each lamella there is a small leaf-like scale, and over the dorsum of each 
digit there are generally four or five oval, imbricate, somewhat pectinate scales. 


TROPIOCOLOTES TRIPOLITANUS, Peters. (Plate IV. fig. 8.) 


Tropiocolotes tripolitanus, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 306, pl. —. fig. 1; Blgr. Trans. Zool. 
Soe. xiii. 1891, p. 108; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 97. 
Stenodactylus tripolitanus, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 19. 


6 specimens from around the Pyramids of Gizeh, under stones. 


Head oval, nearly flat above; snout exceeding the distance between the posterior 
border of the eye and the ear, somewhat pointed ; eye two-thirds of the length of the 
snout; ear small, round, less than one-third the diameter of the eye, slightly below 
the level of the commissure of the mouth; nostril defined anteriorly by the rostral, 
below by the first labial, and posteriorly and superiorly by two small, scale-like nasals ; 
rostral with a deep groove on its upper surface ; 7 to 9 upper, and 6 or 7 lower labials, 
those below the eye very small; mental triangular, as broad as the rostral, with one 
pair of large chin-shields behind it, in contact with one another, with the mental, two 
labials, and with some small plates, larger than the neighbouring granules lying along 
their hinder borders. The fore limb when laid forwards reaches to the middle of the 
snout, and the hind limb to the axilla. Digits moderately long, very slightly 
compressed. Claws feeble, curved. Tail exceeds the distance between the snout and 
the vent by nearly one half; it is thick, cylindrical, and tapers to a point. The scales 
on the side and upper surface of the snout are juxtaposed and feebly keeled, and those 
on the temporal region are small and strongly keeled. The dorsal scales and those on the 
limbs and on the upper and under surface of the tail are of moderate size, more or less 


48 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


cycloid, imbricate, and strongly keeled, the keels being arranged in continuous ridges. 
On the under surface of the head the scales are finely granular, but on the rest of the 
under surface of the body they are imbricate and strongly keeled in lines ; those of the 
middle of the belly are about one half the size of the scales of the back. About 50 
rows of scales round the middle of the body. No preanal pores. 

General colour of the upper surface pale yellowish, speckled with fine dark brown 
dots and some obscure white spots. A well-marked dark brown band runs from the 
nostril to the eye, and is continued above the ear to the shoulder. Upper surface of 
tail in its first third coloured like the back, but beyond this with broadish brown 
transverse bars, about 16 in number in a perfect tail. Upper surface of limbs 
concolorous with the back; under surface nearly white. 

Snout to vent 35 millim.; tail 49. Total length 84 millim. 

Among loose sand and pebbles, under stones, around the Pyramids of Gizeh. 

This species was first discovered in Tripoli by Drs. Rohlfs and Stecker on their 
journey to the oasis of Kufra. Since then it has been found in four localities in 
Tunisia. 

It was unknown in Egypt until I found it in the locality already indicated. It 
would be interesting to know what its distribution is in Egypt, and whether it occurs 
on the right as well as on the left bank of the Nile like the next species. 


TROPIOCOLOTES STEUDNERI, Peters. (Plate IV. fig. 9.) 


Gymnodactylus steudneri, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1869, p. 788; Gasco, Viaggio in Egitto, pt. ii. 
1876, p. 113; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. 1. 1885, p. 34. 
Stenodactylus petersii, Blgr. op. cit. 1. p. 18, pl. il. fig. 4. 
Stenodactylus steudneri, Blgr. op. cit. il. 1887, p. 480. 
Tropiocolotes steudneri, Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 108; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & 
Egypt, 1896, p. 97. 
1. Neighbourhood of the Pyramids of Gizeh, under stones. 
15. Margin of desert, Luxor; dug out of small holes. 
1. Desert of Philze. 


Head elongately oval, rather flat above; snout exceeding the distance between the 
posterior border of the eye and the ear; diameter of the eye about two-thirds the 
length of the snout; ear very small, less than one-third the diameter of the eye, 
situated slightly below the level of the angle of the mouth; nostril defined by the 
rostral anteriorly, below by the first labial, and above and posteriorly by two scale-like 
nasals; rostral traversed by a longitudinal groove; 7 to 9 upper and 6 lower labials ; 
mental as broad as the rostral, with a pair of shields behind it, in contact with one 
another, and with a smaller shield behind each of them. Limbs moderately long, the 
fore limb reaching before the eye or to halfway between the eye and the snout, and the 


TROPIOCOLOTES STEUDNERI. 49 


hind limb nearly reaching the axilla. Digits moderately long and slightly compressed ; 
claws feeble, slightly curved. ‘The tail exceeds the distance between the snout and 
the vent by nearly half of its length; it is cylindrical and tapers to a very filiform point. 
Scales on the head granular, rounded, and more or less conical, considerably larger 
on the snout, polygonal and smooth. Scales on the temporal region small, conical, 
smooth. Scales on the body and limbs imbricate, somewhat cycloid, smooth, or very 
faintly keeled in places; those on the tail larger than those on the back, and more 
or less keeled above and below towards its end. Scales on the under surface of the 
head finely granular; those on the ventral surface of the trunk about the same size 
as the dorsal scales, imbricate and smooth. About 50 scales round the middle of the 
body. ‘Two preanal pores present. 

Buff or brownish, with dark brown spots tending to form transverse bands, with pale 
spots between them; in some the bands are obsolete and the back is brown-spotted. 
A dark brown band from the nostril to the eye and behind the latter. Tail barred with 
brown and yellowish buff. Underparts white. 

Snout to vent 28 millim. ; tail 59 millim. 

The type of this species was collected by Steudner at Sennaar and described by 
Peters, in 1869. In 1846, the British Museum purchased a specimen which was said 
to have come from Egypt. Gasco, in 1876, recorded that he had obtained four 
individuals from near Cairo. 

I first met with it at the Pyramids of Gizeh, but only obtained a single specimen, 
after a careful and extended search for more. It would thus appear to be rare in that 
locality. But on the margin of the desert, some miles to the north-east of Luxor, I 
found it to be so plentiful in one place that I obtained fifteen specimens in a very short 
time, and observed many others. I first came upon it in digging into a hole to 
which an Hremias guttulata had retreated; and this led me to look for it in other 
holes, with the success [ have mentioned. It is quick in its movements, and from its 
small size, and the similarity of its colouring to the ground it frequents, it is very 
difficult to capture. 


00 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


BUNOPUS. 
Bunopus, Blanford, Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) xin. 1874, p. 454. 


Digits straight, slender, not dilated, covered below with tubercularly swollen, 
transverse lamelle. Body-scales above granular, with enlarged tubercles; ventral 
scales imbricate. Pupil vertical. Tail verticillate. Preeanal pores. 


BUNOPUS BLANFoRDU, Strauch. (Fig. 4.) 


Bunopus blanfordii, Strauch, Mém. Acad. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) xxxv. 1887, p.61, pl. figs. 13 & 14; 
Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 21, 111. 


Body somewhat slender and slightly depressed ; head elongately oval; snout rather 
long, pointed and spatulate; nostril formed by the rostral, first labial, and three 
nasals; ear an elongately oval, vertical slit. Upper and lower labials variable, 10 or 
11 of the former, and 9 or 10 of the latter ; a few enlarged granules behind the mental 
and along the lower labials. Fore limb reaching to the snout or falling slightly short 
of it, not reaching the groin; hind limb reaching to the axilla or to the shoulder. 
Transverse lamelle of digits dentate at their free borders, which are more or less swollen, 
feebly bitubercular, and projecting in profile. Body covered with small, unequal, 
subimbricate, almost granular scales, with numerous large trihedral tubercles, some 
smaller than others, scattered among them and arranged somewhat in 14 longitudinal 
rows. Scales on the snout generally hexagonal, more or less convex, largest before 
the eyes; from between the eyes backwards to the occiput the head is sparsely covered 
with minute granules, with numerous rounded, smooth, convex tubercles, some larger 
than the others, largest on the occipital and temporal regions ; a few large ones at the 
angle of the mouth, and 2 or 3 at the anterior border of the ear. The tubercles of the 
occiput, as they are traced backwards, pass gradually into the large trihedral tubercles 
of the back. The humerus with some large keeled scales and a few enlarged tubercles, 
the latter also present among the scales on the hind limb. The scales on the under 
surface of the head are small granules, gradually increasing in size backwards towards 
the lower part of the abdomen, where they are about one-fourth the size of the largest 
dorsal tubercles; on the chest and backwards they are feebly imbricate, somewhat 
cycloidal with finely dentate free ends, more or less carinate on the chest, but less so 
posteriorly, where they may be smooth or obscurely keeled. A line of enlarged scales 
across the preeanal region and prolonged on to the thighs ; praanal and femoral pores 
present in the males, the latter seldom extending beyond the middle of the thigh, 
but in others occurring interruptedly along the thigh for a considerable part of its 
extent; 10 to 20 pores in continuous series on the preanal area, and as many as 


BUNOPUS BLANFORDII. ol 


31 in interrupted series on preanal region and thighs, but many on the thighs not 
well defined. Tail slightly depressed at the base, cylindrical beyond, fully one-third 
longer than the body and head; scales on its upper surface arranged in well-marked 
verticils, defined posteriorly by enlarged carinate tubercles, each verticil consisting of 
about four rows of unequal scales, somewhat obtusely keeled. Under surface with 
rings of unequal, keeled scales, two or more larger scales, side by side, corresponding 
to the posterior border of the verticils. 

Rufous ashy above, with broad, brownish, transverse dorsal bands, somewhat irregular 
in form, and varying in intensity, or paler above without the bands, but with brownish 
spots of varying size, and more or less longitudinal in their arrangement, in five or six 
lines, or che spots when small more or less irregular in their distribution. Upper 
surface ef head with similarly coloured spots, or immaculate ; a brown band before the 
eyes to the snout, varying in breadth and intensity, and prolonged behind the eyes and 
tending to be continued to the occiput. Limbs with a few obscure brown bars or spots. 
Tail barred above with brown. Under surface of body, limbs, and tail white. 

Strauch’s largest specimen measured—snout to vent 41 millim., tail 42 millim.; but 
the measurements of a male from the Hadramut with a perfect unrenewed tail were as 
follows—snout to vent 49 millim., tail 63 millim. 

I have never met with this species myself in Egypt. It was described by Strauch 
from two specimens said to have come from Egypt, and to have formed part of the 
collection of a Prince of Wirtemberg. They were forwarded to Strauch by Erber, 
under the name of Gymnodactylus scaber, to which the species has a superficial 
resemblance. As recorded elsewhere, I am indebted to Professor Pleske for having 
kindly forwarded one of the types to London for my inspection, and of this specimen 
I now give the accompanying figure (fig. 4). 

No other specimens of this species have been recorded from Egypt, but my collector, 
who accompanied Mr. Bent to the Hadramut, brought back fifteen examples of it, 
which were compared with the type from St. Petersburg. Egypt and the Hadramut 
are therefore the only two regions in which it has been observed. 

Its habits are probably the same as those of B. tuderculatus, which Mr. Blanford 
states is ‘found in houses and under stones”. It is closely allied to that species, but 
differs from it in the body and limbs being more slender, the head more flattened, the 
snout longer, in the absence of chin-shields, in the enlarged dorsal tubercles being 
more numerous, and in the presence of elongate scales on the under surface of the tail, 
corresponding to the verticils. 

B. tuberculatus is confined to Asia. According to Mr. Blanford it abounds in 
Baluchistan, but it is also present in Sind, in South-eastern Persia, and on the coasts 
of the Persian Gulf. 


* Zool. of Persia, 1876, p. 350. 


52 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


In B&. tuberculatus the under surface of the digits is covered with broad, but slightly, 
if at all, imbricate, transverse plates, more or less swollen into eminences. A small 
somewhat tumid scale lies along either side of the lamelle, and the upper surface of 
the digits is covered with imbricate scales, the outermost row of which has the points 
of the scales directed forwards and outwards, so that when the digits are viewed from 


Fig. 4. 


Bunopus blanfordii, Strauch. One of the types, St. Petersburg Museum. 


below, the points of these scales are seen slightly to project, but not to the extent to 
entitle them to be regarded as a denticulation. 

In Alsophylax pipiens there is much the same structure, as there are the transverse 
plates and the row of small scales external to them ; but the former are simple, 7. e. with- 
out eminences. In Stenodactylus elegans the lamelle are tricarinate, and the small 
row of scales external to them is better developed than in either Bunopus or Alsophylaz ; 
and the side of the digit is distinctly dentate, owing to the greater development of the 
row of scales external to the line that runs along the side of the lamellee, and which I 
regard as the outer row of dorsal scales of the digit. S. dwmsdent has the similarly 
dentate digits of S. elegans, whereas in S. orientalis the dentations become converted 
into a fringe. In S. petrii there is an additional row of small scales external to the 


BUNOPUS BLANFORDII. 53 


lamellz, and the latero-dorsal row of scales assumes the form of a fringe, more developed 
in the latter than in the former. In Crossobamon there is practically the same 
structure of digit as in S. petrii, but the fringe becomes so greatly developed as to 
recall the fringe of an Acanthodactylus. It is thus evident that the digits of these 
supposed genera do not differ very materially from one another. 

In Bunopus the nostril is defined by the rostral, first labial, and three nasals, and 
the development of these scales is much the same as in Stenodactylus; whereas in 
Alsophylax the first labial is very large and defines not only the lower, but the posterior 
border of the nostril as well, thus differing materially from the very limited relation 
of that shield to the nostril in Bunopus. In Alsophylax also there is a well-developed 
upper nasal shield, quite unlike the scaly nasals of the latter genus. Also the tail of 
Alsophylax instead of being in verticils defined by enlarged tubercles is non-verticillate 
and covered with smooth imbricate scales. 


54 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


GYMNODACTYLUS. 
Gymnodactylus, Spix, Spec. nov. Lacert. Bras. 1825, p. 17. 


Digits slender, not dilated, covered below with more or less developed transverse 
plates; proximal portion of the digits cylindrical or slightly depressed, the distal 
section composed of two or three compressed phalanges set at an angle to the proximal 
portion ; each digit with a claw bearing an enlarged scale above and another under its 
base. Scales on the upper suface of the body variable, either granules or scales, with 
or without enlarged tubercles; ventrals granular or scaly. Tail generally cylindrical, 
and, exceptionally, short and broad. Pupil vertical. Preanal pores present or absent 
in the male. 


GYMNODACTYLUS SCABER, Heyden. (Plate V. fig. 1.) 


Stenodactylus scaber, Heyden, Riippell, Atlas nérdl. Afr., Rept. 1827, p. 15, pl. iv. fig. 2. 

Gymnodactylus scaber, part., D. & B. ii. 1836, p. 421; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; 
Gasco, Viaggio in Hgitto, pt. 11. 1876, p. 113; Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. Erdk. Berl. xiii. 
1878, p. 94; Murray, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (5) xiv. 1884, p. 102; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 
1885, p. 27; Faunaof Brit. India, Rept. & Batr. 1890, p. 62; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. 
(vii. sér.) xxxv.no. 2, 1887, p. 47; Boettger, Offenb. Ver. Nat. 1892, p. 62; Kat. Rept. Mus. 
Senck. 1893, p. 22; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlv. 1895, p. 13; Anderson, Herpet. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 112. 

Gonyodactylus {Cryptopodion) scaber, Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 93. 

Gymnodactylus geckoides (non Spix), Schreib. Herp. Eur, 1875, p. 482; Blanford, Zool. Persia, 
1876, p. 348 ; part., Steindachner, Novara Reptiles, 1876, p. 17. 


Head of moderate size; forehead slightly concave; eye large; ear small, narrow, 
vertical in position; nostril formed by the rostral, first labial, and three nasals. Body 
of moderate length, not depressed ; limbs well developed, the fore limb reaching to the 
tip of the snout, and the hind limb to near the ear. Rostral with a median groove 
above; generally ten upper, and eight or nine lower labials; mental triangular, with 
two pairs of chin-shields behind it, the inner pair forming a suture behind the mental. 
The snout covered with rather large, more or less polygonal, convex granules, and the 
back of the head with granules and intermixed rounded tubercles. Scales of the upper 
surface of the body small, irregular, and flat, with numerous, closely intermixed, large, 
strongly-keeled, trihedral tubercles, each much larger than the surrounding areas 
occupied by the small scales, and arranged in 12 to 14 more or less longitudinal lines. 
Scales on the under surface of the body in about 20 longitudinal rows across the middle 
of the belly, large, smooth, and more or less cycloid in form. Tail longer than the 
body and head, somewhat depressed at the base, cylindrical beyond this, and tapered 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


J Green delet lith. 


GYMNODACTYLUS SCABER. Fig. 1 


HEMIDACTYLUS TURCICUS, var. SINAITA. 


>  ¢, Fao, Persian Gulf. 


Fig. 4, ?, Suakin. 


\ 
Ly 


HEMIDACTYLUS TURCICUS. Fig. 3, ¢, Edfu. 


HEMIDACTYLUS FLAVIVIRIDIS. Fig. 5, ¢, Suakin. 


Pl. 


me TALS yi 


H 


v im 1 1 Ninety, ii \ ai : : y 
ye 


¥ : Se awit ae 0 2) rae ti if eee a 
ciety a ~ Ain : : ry i = 
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I F f 1 = tae 
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"\ i i i (ga 
{ 5 i i 
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i i i ; f ' i Mi 
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I f i in j i 
y f f he 
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te i i hf 
io By eh eth 
t i : ta i 
i ! i \ 
oT 1 { : ti gt i 
f i il 
; i i ‘ hi oh 
f Din | 
i i ; ; 
y | i. | i rm 
Peete sy I ; & ya tty 
We a f | * : : Naat 
i J ) i 
i j ‘ j Wh ii 
x } ie _ en : y 
ral * ; { i ie 
‘ er ety 
fm aN ; yu 4 
i f 
, iia 
; B ul d j 
i er i i i 
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t Po i eee, it iad ay 
; i ye i 7) 
Mor al i I n 7 
itn bat i 
i u : il : ; i, iy Dp 
; ‘ iy a i De eer 
¥ { ee i 
i . : 
tint 
7 : ( 
' I 
y 
‘ 
1 
P { 
i i 
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' 
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rt i Y ar i 
i Par i MG 
if u / Nie! 
A| ‘ un + 


GYMNODACTYLUS SCABER. 65 


to the tip; covered above with large projecting pointed tubercles ; under surface with 
transversely enlarged plates. Five to six preanal pores in the male. Pale sandy- 
coloured above, spotted with brown, and the tail with rings of the same colour; 
underparts white. 

The largest specimen in the British Museum has the following measurements :— 
Snout to vent 46; tail 59 millim. 

I did not meet with G. scaber myself, but Gasco found a small lizard near Cairo 
which he referred to this species. A specimen is also preserved in the St. Petersburg 
Museum, said to have come from Cairo. The first authentic record of its occurrence in 
Egypt was given by Peters in 1862; but as far back as Duméril and Bibron’s day a 
specimen from Egypt, said to have been presented by Riippell, existed in the Paris 
Museum. 

It was first described by Heyden, who gave “stony places, Tor, Arabia, and 
Abyssinian coast,” as the localities whence his specimens were obtained ; but neither 
Rippell nor Prof. Boettger make any mention in their catalogues of specimens from 
Abyssinia. 

Dr. Klunzinger, in 1872, obtained 3 specimens at Kosseir!. 

Outside of Africa it ranges through Arabia to Mesopotamia (Baghdad and Fao), 
through Persia (Shiraz, Bandar Abbas), to Afghanistan (Kandahar) and Sind (Sukkur 
and Saki). 

The native name is uz =bors. 


‘ I tried to make Kosseir a centre for collecting, as it is a coastguard station of the Egyptian Government 
under the supervision of Europeans. With official sanction I fowarded to the station a liberal supply of 
alcohol for collecting purposes, on two occasions, accompanied by full instructions as to how the collections 
were to be made, while at the same time I offered pecuniary rewards for each specimen to be obtained. I 
received most encouraging promises in return, but beyond that nothing more.. This was in such marked 
contrast to iny experience in every other quarter in Egypt that I cannot refrain from mentioning it, as it 


explains how Kosseir happens not to be represented in my collections. 


96 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


PRISTURUS. 
Pristurus, Ruippell, N. Wirbelth. Faun. Abyss., Rept. 1835, p. 16. 


“Digits slender, clawed, cylindrical at the base; the distal phalanges compressed, 
forming an angle with the basal portion of the digits, the lower surface of which has a 
row of plates. Body not depressed, covered with uniform granules. Tail compressed, 
keeled. Pupil circular; eyelid distinct all round the eye. No preanal nor femoral 
pores.” —Boulenger 1. 


PRISTURUS FLAVIPUNCTATUS, Riippell. (Plate IV. fig. 10.) 


Pristurus flavipunctatus, Riippell, N. Wirbelth. Faun. Abyss., Rept. 1835, p. 17, pl. 6. fig.3; Gray, 
Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 171; Blanford, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (4) xii. 1874, p. 454; Vaillant, 
in Révoil, Faun. et Flor. Pays Comalis, Rept. & Batr. 1882, p. 16; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. 1. 
1885, p. 52; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 531; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. ser. 2, xvi. (xxxv.) 1896, 
p. 546; id. op. cit. xvii. (xxxvii.) 1897, p. 277; Strauch, Mem. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil.) xxxv. 
no. 2, 1887, p.45; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 24; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1895, p. 638; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 98; Del Prato, Atti Soc. Ital. xxxv. 1895, 
p- 24. 

Gymnodactylus flavipunctatus, D. & B. iii. 1835, p. 417; A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, 
p. 43; Gasco, Viaggio in Kgitto, pt. 11. 1876, p. 110. 

Saurodactylus flavipunctatus, Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 91. 

1g. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 

38g and5 9. Durrur. 


Head rather high ; forehead nearly flat or faintly concave ; snout moderately pointed, 
its length from the inner canthus of the eye equalling the interorbital breadth and 
considerably exceeding the distance between the eye and the ear. Eye moderately 
large, its longitudinal axis almost equalling the interval between itself and the ear. 
Ear-opening oval, about one-third the diameter of the eye, oblique in position. Nostril 
defined by the rostral and three nasals, the largest internal. Rostral nearly twice as 
high as broad, quadrangular, and its upper border notched by a median furrow. Six 
to nine upper labials, the prevalent number being eight; five or six lower labials. 
Mental broad, rounded behind, but occasionally truncately triangular, with enlarged 
granules behind it and some of the labials. Limbs moderately long; the fore limb 
when laid forwards has the wrist opposite to the anterior border of the eye, or nearly 
so, and when laid backwards it does not reach the groin; the hind limb may just 
reach the axilla, extend to the shoulder, or even pass beyond it. Digits moderately 


* Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 52. 


PRISTURUS FLAVIPUNCTATUS. oT 


long and slender. ‘Tail longer than the body, laterally compressed, in the male 
provided with a strongly serrated dorsal ridge and a corresponding ridge on the ventral 
surface, but less developed; the dorsal ridge is prolonged on to the dorsal surface of 
the body, in the male as a line of enlarged spiny granules, absent in the female ; in the 
latter the caudal ridges are represented by enlarged granules. Head, body, limbs, and 
tail covered with minute granules, largest on the snout; granules on the under surface 
of the body equalling those on the snout. 

General colour rather dark greyish brown, with feebly defined darker cross-bars, 
and sometimes with a pale mesial dorsal line, the sides more or less spotted with 
reddish. A fine dark brown band from the rostral through the eye and over the 
temporal region. Lower labials, throat, and sides of the belly finely dark spotted. 
General colour of underparts whitish. 

It attains to about 80 millim. in total length, of which the tai] measures 50 millim. 

This gecko is distributed over the great littoral plain at Suakin and Durrur. 
Dr. Penton found a single specimen at Suakin in a hole tenanted by a Varanus griseus 
and by a burrowing toad (Bufo pentoni). It is very active, and frequents not only 
the sandy plain, but rocks and the trunks of trees. Colonel Yerbury states that at 
Aden it is common on the rocks, and at Lahej on the trunks of baboul trees. At 
Assab, in Eritrea, it has also been observed on these trees. 

This species was first found at Massowa by Riippell, and, for many years, the only 
examples in the British Museum were two females presented by the Frankfort Museum. 
In the Catalogue of the former Museum two specimens are referred, with doubt, to 
Syria, as its occurrence in that country is highly improbable. In 1874, Mr. Blanford 
met with it at Maskatin Arabia. Gasco described, in 1876, a specimen collected in the 
Sudan by Dr. Ori, but the exact locality whence it was obtained is unknown. In 1895, 
Mr. Boulenger recorded it from Milmil in Western Somaliland, and in the following 
year from Assab, in Eritrea. In 1895, I mentioned its presence at Aden. It has 
never been observed in the Nile valley proper. 

The length of the hind limb is subject to great variation, irrespective of sex or 
locality, and the fore limb is equally variable. 

A small Acarus of the genus Gekobia infests this gecko. It is probably G. loricata, 
Berlese, and in its bright reddish colour it resembles the similarly-coloured spots found 
on the gecko. 

Mr. Boulenger has recently published a revision of this group in which he recognizes 
seven species !, viz.:—First, P. percristatus, from the same region in which P. flavi- 
punctatus is found; second, P. flavipunctatus itself, the distribution of which has 
already been given; third, P. rupestris, Blanford, from S.E. Arabia, the shores of 
the Persian Gulf, Sind, and the island of Socotra; fourth, P. insignis, Blanford, 


1 Ann. Mus. Civ. Genoy. ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 5 Giugno, 1896, p. 4. 


58 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


from Socotra; fifth, P. crucifer, Val., from Berbera (Las Gori), Abyssinia, Western 
Somaliland, and 8. Arabia; sixth, P. phillipsi, Blgr., also from Berbera; and, lastly, 
P. carteri, Gray, from the island of Masira off the east coast of Arabia. Another 
species was described by Steindachner as Spatalwra collaris, but the locality whence it 
was obtained is unknown. Mr. Boulenger provisionally regards it as a variety of 
P. carteri, Gray. 

The species of Pristurus are divided by Mr. Boulenger into two groups, depending 
on whether the rostral shield enters into or does not enter into the formation of the 
nostril. In the first four the rostral borders the nostril, while in the remaining three 
species it does not. 

P. percristatus and P. flavipunctatus are closely allied, but the males of the former 
are easily distinguished from those of the latter by their stronger dorsal crest extending 
to the nape, whereas in P. flavipunctatus it extends on to the anterior half of the body 
only. ‘These stronger-crested geckos have a slightly longer hind limb than P. /lavi- 
punctatus, as it may extend to the shoulder or between the shoulder and the ear, 
while in P. flavipunctatus it reaches the axilla or slightly beyond the shoulder. The 
variability of the crest in Pristurus, the extent to which the length of the limbs varies 
in P. flavipunctatus, and the difficulty that will be experienced in distinguishing the 
females of P. percristatus from those of P. flavipunctatus are considerations which 
suggest the possibility of the former being only a variety of the latter. Characters 
derived from the degree of development of the crest seem to be misleading, for 
when Mr. Boulenger defined P. crucifer and P. phillipsii his materials led him to 
conclude that while the latter had a caudal crest, the former had none. Since then 
male specimens of P. crucifer with a very rudimentary caudal crest have been recorded 
by him from Capt. Bottego’s collection from Southern Somaliland, so that P. crucifer 
has a caudal crest as well as P. phillipsit. 

I recently referred 39 specimens of a gecko of this genus from the Hadramut, 
Arabia, with considerable doubt, to the species described by Steindachner as 
P. collaris, but pointed out at the same time that they differed from P. carteri, 
Gray, the types of which were before me, in having a well-defined black collar and 
by the absence of a mesial patch of spiny scales on the middle of the belly. In the 
original description of Spatalura collaris, Stdn.=P. collaris, the lizard is said to have 
a dorsal crest, a structure entirely absent in the Hadramut geckos. Some of the 
latter, however, were compared by Dr. Werner with the types preserved in the Vienna 
Museum, with which he found them to be perfectly identical, so that I was entitled 
to conclude that the types had no dorsal crest, and that an error had crept into 
Steindachner’s description. If, however, on further examination the types of P. collaris 
should reveal the presence of a rudimentary dorsal crest, its absence in the Hadramut 
specimens would not necessarily imply that they were distinct from P. collaris, in view 
of the variable development of the dorsal and caudal crests in other species. 


PRISTURUS FLAVIPUNCTATUS. 09 


With reference to the mesial patch of enlarged scales on the belly, it is worthy of 
note that while it is present in both the types of P. carter?, no trace of it exists in the 
39 specimens doubtfully and tentatively referred by me to P. collaris, and that in all 
the other species of this genus it only rarely shows itself in the well-marked and perfectly 
distinct P. flavipunctatus. Recently, Mr. Boulenger has examined 294 examples of 
P. percristatus, but he makes no mention of its presence in any of them. Before 
accepting the specific identity of P. earteri and P. collaris, it should first be ascer- 
tained whether these enlarged scales are only sometimes present in the geckos from 
the island of Masira, or whether they are invariably absent in those from the Hadramut. 
The evidence, as yet, that they are specifically identical does not appear to me to be 
conclusive. Nothing, moreover, can be definitely settled on this point until the 
essential characters of the types of P. collaris are known. 

It may be as well to point out that while the nostril in P. carteri is defined by two 
large nasals and by a small one, in 36 out of the 39 specimens of the Hadramut geckos 
it is perforated in a single, rather swollen, crescentic shield, the two horns of which 
are either in contact behind the nasal opening or are separated from each other by 
interposed granules. In the three exceptions, on the other hand, the nostril is formed 
as in P. carteri. 


60 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


PTYODACTYLUS. 
Ptyodactylus, Gray, Aun. Phil. (new ser.) x. 1825, p. 198. 


Digits free, with transverse plates on the proximal portion of their under surfaces ; 
distal extremity of each digit dilated into a fan-like expansion, with a small median 
fissure at its free end, from which a fine sulcus traverses the under surface of the 
expansion, dividing it into two lateral halves, each of which is covered with from 
7 to 12 divergent lamellz ; a small retractile claw in the median fissure. Body either 
wholly covered with small granules, or with intermixed enlarged tubercles ; abdominal 
scales small, smooth, and nearly imbricate. Pupil vertical. Neither preanal nor 
femoral pores. 


Linnzeus, in his preface to Frederick Hasselquist’s ‘ Iter Paleestinum,’ which appeared 
in 1757, mentions that he had been deputed by the Queen of Sweden to arrange and 
publish the manuscripts of his distinguished pupil, who had died at Smyrna, 9th February, 
1752, in the thirtieth year of his age. Linnzeus, as Hasselquist’s editor, states that he 
had carefully digested the work in the best way he could, had arranged every thing 
under its proper title, and had altered the technical names and manner of writing them 
without changing the author’s meaning. He further says that the synonyms of the 
different species enumerated in the ‘Iter Palestinum’ would be found in the tenth 
edition of his ‘Systema Nature.’ 

In the second part of Hasselquist’s posthumous work, a gecko is described under the 
name of Lacerta gecko, a term which Linnezus had previously given’ to the Asiatic 
gecko, G. verticillatus, Laur. It afterwards appeared in the ‘Systema Nature’ ”. 
Schneider evidently regarded it as a distinct species, as he speaks of it as Hasselquist’s 
gecko ; but he did not designate it Stellio hasselquisti, as has been stated by Cuvier 
and repeated by Duméril and Bibron and other authors. The author who first called 
it L. hasselquistii was Donndorff. 

Hasselquist’s gecko was described by Is. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire as Le Gecko lobé, and 
there are two figures of it in the great French work on Egypt. In the first set of 
Reptilian plates it is represented on pl. 5. fig. 5, and in the Supplementary plates on 
pl. 1. fig. 2. Audouin, who dealt with the latter plates, considered that the lizard 
there represented was a variety of the lizard figured on pl. 5. 

In view of the existence of two types of nostril in these Egyptian geckos, the one 
merely swollen and the other tubular, it is unfortunate that it cannot be said with any 
certainty whether these figures represent both or only one of them. The essentially 
tubular nostril is formed by the first labial and three nasals, and exceptionally by three 


1 Mus. Adolph. Frid. 1754, p. 46. 2 19th ed. i. 1766, p. 365. 


PTYODACTYLUS. 61 


nasals only, while the simply swollen nostril is generally defined by the rostral, first 
labial, and three nasals. 

On Suppl. pl. 1 there is an elongated view (fig. 22) of the upper surface of the head 
of figure 2, in delineating which evident pains had been taken to give the details of 
the structure of the nostril, which is shown to have been formed by the rostral, first 
labial, and three nasals ; but the shape of the head is not that of the gecko lobé. 

On the Plain of Suez, close to the Sinaitic Peninsula, geckos of this species (Pl. VI. 
fig. 5) occur with somewhat heavier and more rounded bodies, larger, broader, and much 
less depressed heads, and larger digital disks than the common gecko lobé of Egypt. 
Their nostrils are not tubular, but are somewhat more swollen than in the latter ; and 
in two specimens in my possession from that locality the opening is irregularly and 
asymmetrically defined, as, in both, the rostral is absent on one side of the head and 
present on the other. The tail also is more rounded than in the gecko des maisons. 
It appears to me that it isa gecko of this kind that is represented on Suppl. pl. 1. fig. 2, 
and that the gecko on pl. 5. fig. 5 is the common form with the slightly depressed 
head, slender body, and somewhat smaller disks (wde Pl. VI. figs. 1 & 2). The specimen 
of the gecko lobé described by Is. Geoffroy was 5 inches long; and he states that the 
body and head were depressed and flattened, which is evidence that he was not 
describing a gecko resembling fig. 5 of Pl. VI. of this work, as this gecko has a high 
and broad head. As already stated, Audouin regarded the gecko figured by Savigny 
on Suppl. pl. 1. fig. 2 as a variety of the gecko lodbé. This so-cailed variety I suppose 
to have been the equivalent of the Suez geckos. 

When Mr. Boulenger wrote, in 1891, the tubular-nosed geckos and those with merely 
swollen nostrils were represented in the British Museum only by three of the former 
and by two of the latter, whereas there were eight specimens of the Sinaitic and 
Palestine geckos and four geckos from Maskat. He regarded the tubular or much- 
swollen nosed geckos as the typical form. 

In dealing with this species I have had 94 specimens before me: the Nile valley has 
contributed 36, the Sinaitic Peninsula and the Plain of Suez 5, Southern Syria 9, South- 
eastern Arabia 4, the Hejaz 3, Algeria 5, Eritrea (Ghinda) 27, and Shoa 5. 

The geckos found in the Nile valley belong to two groups. ‘The first I shall 
call Phalanx I., and the second Phalanx II. To the first I also refer the geckos 
from the Hejaz, and to the second likewise certain geckos from the Plain of Suez, 
the Sinaitic Peninsula, Syria, and South-eastern Arabia. The geckos from Algeria 
seem to deserve recognition as a distinct variety, as do also those from Eritrea and 
Shoa. 

As the geckos of the first Phalanx represent the gecko first described by Is. Geoffroy 
as Le Gecko lobé, it may be designated “‘ Phalanx typica”; and as those of the 
second Phalanx embrace geckos conforming more or less to the geckos from Tor in the 
Sinaitic Peninsula named by Heyden P. guttatus, it may appropriately be called 


62 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


“« Phalanx guttata.” ‘This phalanx is capable of being divided into two sections, 
depending on the formation and degree of tumescence of the nostril—one in which it 
is swollen, and the other in which it is tubular. 

Certain members of the second Phalanx, such as the geckos of Syria, lead more or 
less into the geckos of Algeria, and Eritrea and Shoa; but, at the same time, they are 
so distinct that they never could be confounded with the geckos from the three last- 
mentioned localities, or with the typical form from Egypt; neither could an Eritrean 
or Shoan gecko be ever mistaken for one from Algeria or from Egypt. The North-west 
African geckos stand as var. oudrii, and the Eritrean I propose to call var. ragazzi, in 
honour of Dr. Ragazzi, whose collections along the shores of the Red Sea and in 
Eritrea and Shoa have thrown so much light on the herpetology of that region. 

I have in the synonymy attempted, by breaking it up, to show the forms which have 
been dealt with by those who have written on this group. 

The two species of the genus are distinguished as follows :— 


Body covered with uniform small granules. . . . 5 6 0 0 69 6 oo JP. Aomolgis. 
Body covered with small granules and intermixed resale tubereles 5 0 0 0 a JP oassalymasii. 


PTYODACTYLUS HASSELQUISTII, Donndorff. (Plates VI. & VII.) 


I. Phalanx typica. (Plate VI. figs. 1-3.) 


Lacerta gecko, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, p. 306; part., Syst. Nat. 1. 1766, p. 366 ; 
Forskal, Descr. An. 1775, p. viii et p. 13. 

Stellio gecko, part., Schneider, Amph. Phys. 1792, p. 12. 

Lacerta hasselquistii, Donndorff, Zool. Beytr. 1798, iii. p. 183; Bechstein, Lacép. Nat. Amph. u. 
1800, p. 262. 

Le Gecko des maisons, Cuy. Regn. An. ii. 1817, p. 49; nouv. éd. il. Se p- 56. 

Gekko ascalabotes, part., Merr. Tent. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 40. 

Gecko lobatus, Licht. Verz. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1823, p. 103; Is. Geoffr. St. Tl Descr. de l’Hzypte, 
H. N.i. ?1827, p. 132, pl. 5. fig. 5; id. op. cit. 8vo ed. xxiv. 1829, p.37; Schinz, Nat. Abbild., 
Rept. 1833-35, p. 74, tab. 17; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 27. 

Gecko maculatus, Schinz, op. cit. tab. 16. 

Ptyodactylus lobatus, Gray, Ann. Phil. (2) x. 1825, p.198; Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1843, p.96; Blgr. 
Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p..110 (specimens d and e); Trans. Zool. Soc. xii. 1891, p. 111 
(specimens 9 and 10) ; Strauch, Mém., Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) xxxv. 1887, p. 35 (? Egyptian and 
Kosseir specimens); Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 27 ? (Egyptian specimen). 

Ptyodactylus hasselquistii, D. & B. iii. 1836, p. 378, pl. 33. fig. 3; Riippell, Mus. Senck. ii. 1845, 
p- 300; Duméril, Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 40; Gasco, Viag. Egitto, pt. 11.1876, p. 110; 
Boutan, Rev. Biol. Nord France, v. 1893, p. 336, fig. 1; Anderson, Herp. Arabia & Egypt, 
1896, p. 56 & p. 98, typical form. 

Ptyodactylus gecko, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 151 (specimen d). 

Ptyodactylus gecco, Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878, p. 94. 


J.Green del.et lth. 


PTYODACTYLUS HASSELQUISTII. 


Fig. 1 ¢, Assuan, Phalanx typica. Fig. 4 ¢, Maskat, Arabia, Phalanx guttata. 
Fig. 2 3, Phil 0 Fig. 5 ¢, Plain of Suez 90 
Fig. 3 ¢, Medina, Arabia __,, Fig. 5a ¢, Abu Roash, Gizeh oD 


PTYODACTYLUS HASSELQUISTII. 63 


Mokattam Hills, Cairo. Dr. Walter Innes. 
Luxor. 

Temple of Medinet Habu. 

. Temple of Edfu. 

3 and2 @. Houses, Assuan. 

g and 5 2. Temple of Phile. 

®@. Wadi Halfa. 

g and3 9. Wadi Halfa. O. Charlton, Esq. 


40 +0 Oy +0 


Ore wwe © ee 


Form slender; body slightly depressed; head elongately or shortly oviform, slightly 
depressed ; nostrils more or less swollen, formed by the rostral, first labial, and three 
nasals; eye large. Upper labials 11 to 14, generally 13; lower labials 11 to 13, 
usually 12. Length of limbs variable, generally moderately long and slender; the 
fore limb half a finger’s length in advance of the snout, or the tip of the third digit 
only reaching to between the eye and the snout; hind limb reaches the shoulder or 
does not extend beyond the axilla; disks only moderately large ; the lamelle vary from 
8—8, 8—9, to J—9. ‘Tail slightly depressed, with usually a feeble longitudinal sulcus 
above, more or less verticillate, with or without small tubercles on the verticils. Skin 
soft and porous; granules moderately large, conical, smooth or carinate (Hejaz) ; 
tubercles moderate, numerous, more or less carinate; enlarged non-carinate or carinate 
(Hejaz) granules before the eye, about twice or three times as large as the dorsal 
granules; no enlarged tubercles on the side of the head, but some of the granules 
larger than the others; a few enlarged tubercles on the radial section of the fore limb 
and on the hind limb generally, exceptionally only on the thighs and tibial portion, or 
rarely entirely absent on both limbs. Ventrals smooth, small, subhexagonal, imbricate, 
largest on the femoral and interfemoral areas. 

Pale sandy grey or even whitish above, but varying in accordance with its 
surroundings; generally a brown line from the snout to the eye, continued more or 
less behind the eye above the ear to the nape of the neck, where it meets its fellow of 
the opposite side, or the nuchal portion may become broken up; top of the head 
reticulately brown spotted. ‘Transverse more or less V-shaped brown bands on the back, 
frequently broken up; limbs and tail generally barred with brown; underparts white. 


Largest Egyptian male . . . . . Snout to vent 76 millim. ‘ 
» male from Hejaz 3 oy 80) 3 


Hab. The Nile valley; and the Hejaz, Arabia. 


fohy, ON ined ONS HCH grey) HH ne) axe) go) nO) te) GRO) GKO) KO) tO) KO) AKO) KO) 


64 


Tail. 


45 


58 


73 


68 


66 
69 


Head, 
length. 


12 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Head, 
width. 


15 
16 


Forma- 
tion of 
nostril. 


Character 
of 
nostril. 


No. of 
Fore limb _ | lamella 
reaches Fae 
L. A. Sn. 8 
” 8 
” 8 
8. A. Sn 9 
” 8 
” 8 
L. A. Sn 8 
” 9 
S. A. Sn 8 
” 8 
9 
§. A. Sn 9 
Sn. 8 
8. A. Sn 8 
8. A. Sn. 8 
B. E. Sn 9 
8. A. Sn 9 
Sn. 9 
8. A. Sn 8 
” 8 
” 9 
” 8 
N. 9 
8. A. Sn. 8 


Explanation.—Measurements throughout in millimetres. 


Hind limb 
reaches 


A. Sh. 


” 


A. Sh. 


No. of 
lamelle 

on 3rd 

digit. 


Labials. 


rar 


ey ey et 
le www 


wh 


| 


a 
ce 


Locality. 


Dar Fadda, betw. 
Medina & Wish. 


Wadi Halfa. 
Phila. 

Edfu. 

Wadi Halfa. 
Phil. 

Wadi Halfa. 
Phila. 

Wadi Halfa. 
Medinet Habu. 
Wadi Halfa. 
Mokattam Hills. 


Wadi Halfa. 


Hadir el Kabir, 
near Medina. 


Assuan. 

Luxor, 
Assuan. 

Phil. 

Widi Halfa. 
Medinet Habu. 


Assuan. 
Hadir el Kabir, 


near Medina. 


R. L. 3.N., rostral, first labial, and three nasals; Sw., swollen; 


N.F., nearly flat; M. S., much swollen; L. A. Sn., largely in advance of snout; S.A. Sn., slightly in advance of snout; 
Sn., snout; B. EH. Sn., between eye and snout; N., nostril; A. Sh., advance of shoulder; Sh., shoulder; A., axilla. 


1a, WANE, 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


| 


H.Gronvold del.et hth. 


PTYODACTYLUS HASSELQUISTII. 


6 2, Jerusalem, Phalanx guttata. Fig. 8a, Jerash Gilead, Phalanx guttata. 
7 &, Mount Carmel an Fig. 9 2, Bou Saada, Algeria, var. oudrii. : 
8 ¢, Lake Huleh ori Figs. 10 & 11, ¢ & ¢, Ghinda, Eritrea, var. ragazzi. 


» ie Neate 


ou ii 


if ‘ 

, feat ay cae 
(me aS , Os 
wel ee aan} 
TAC De 


(ai 


i. 


Than 
j a an 
fa vy ie) 


Ven (PAC 
au oY 


' iH ine 
, UL i we ht 


ui) e 
> a vi 
an 
Ta tl a" a 
Te Ay 

iu 
ae vo Ta AL 
ii 


Ne eae 
» 


ae ue ii 


ha ict 


: Ve 
\) i ; i. ~ ue iy i if ue : int prise 

7 it ii bet i { in i ae | vie ie he - ROC ot ( 

f HM : , i fn i Yi : : 
ml \ { eG, Pe Len vate ‘ia We de 
oon _ , ’ t F ; 1 We i a Dhaai MK hi nly ath - any i Ue hab 
a { ie MAO AN coy (eee | 

| ; y f Oa urine 


Sue 


fay mn : 
Nin sib ital 


PTYODACTYLUS HASSELQUISTII. 65 


Il. Phalanz guttata. (Plate VI. figs. 4 & 5; Plate VII. figs. 6,7, 8, & 8 a.) 
Section I. Nostril swollen. 


Gecko des maisons, var., Aud. Descr. de l’Higypte, N. H. i. ? 1829, p. 165, Suppl. pl. i. fig. 2; id. 
op. cit. 8vo ed., N. H. vi. 1829, p. 104. 

Ptyodactylus gutiatus, Heyden, Riippell, Atlas nordl. Afr., Rept. 1827, p. 18, pl. iv. fig. 1. 

Ptyodactylus hasselquistii, Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, p. 194; Tristram, West. 
Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p.150; Hart, Fauna & Flora Sinai &c. 1891, p. 210; Bedriaga, 
Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. iv. 1879, p. 16. 

Ptyodactylus lobatus, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 110 (specimens f to 0) ; op. cit. iii. 1887, 
p. 484; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 111 (specimens 11 to 18) ; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. 
Senck. 1893, p. 27 (specimens a—c and Arabian specimen). 

Ptyodactylus lacazii, Boutan, Arch. Zool. Expér. (2) x. 1892, p. 17. 

Pityodactylus bischoffsheimi, Boutan, Rey. Biol. N. France, v. 1893, p. 340, pl. i. fig. 1. 

Ptyodactylus montmahoui, Boutan, |. c. p. 369, pl. ii. fig. 2. 

Ptyodactylus barroisi, Boutan, 1. c. p. 375, pl. ui. fig. 3. 

Ptyodactylus puisewxi, Boutan, |. c. p. 379, pl. 11. fig. 4. 

Ptyodactylus lobatus syriacus, Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 1. 

1 g and 1 ¢. Plain of Suez. 


Body shorter and stouter than in Phalanx typica, variable, much stouter in some 
(Syria) than in others (Egypt and Maskat); head generally elevated, but exhibiting 
various degrees of depression. Nostril swollen, more so in some than in others, 
defined by the rostral, first labial, and three nasals, or asymmetrically by the 
exclusion of the rostral, or symmetrically by the exclusion of the first labial. 
Eye large. 11-13 upper labials, exceptionally 14 or 15, usually 12 or 18; 10-13 
lower labials, generally 11 or 12, occasionally 13, rarely 10 or 14. Limbs very 
variable, sometimes long and moderately slender, in others (Syria) short and stout ; 
disks variable, larger in some than in others, largest in the Syrian geckos; generally 
9—9 lamella, occasionally 10—10, rarely 8—8 and 11—I11. Tail more or less 
rounded, thicker at the base in some (Syrian) than in others (Sinaitic Peninsula), with 
indications of a longitudinal sulcus, verticillate, with a few tubercles; length variable. 
Skin not soft and porous, rather dry; granules variable, larger in some (Syrian) than in 
others. Enlarged tubercles generally present on the limbs (Syria), exceptionally absent 
(Egypt delta). Rounded tubercles sometimes on the side of the head and at the 
angle of the mouth (Syria). Ventrals variable, small in some (Maskat). 

Colour on dorsal surface pale fawn, yellowish olive, or grey, uniform in colour or 
nearly so, but generally with obscure darkish transverse bands on the back and faint 
pale spots, or strongly marked with cross zigzag brown bands or with reticulate darker 
markings enclosing bluish-white spots and dark dots; sometimes uniformly olive with 
white spots, occasionally brilliantly so (Jerash, Pl. VII. fig. § a), while in others dark 

K 


66 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


brown spots are present; some greyish, finely dotted with white; limbs generally 
barred with darker, but the bars are sometimes obsolete (Egypt) or only feebly indicated. 
Tail usually barred, or nearly uniform in its coloration. 


Variable in size. 


Largest specimen, ¢: snout to vent 90 millim. 


Hab. The Sinaitic Peninsula, including the Plain of Suez to Northern Syria, and 
through Arabia to Maskat. 


O, %) @G, CG %) OG H © 


Forma- | Character 3 BO, a : : | Slo. ce 
Tail Head, | Head, | tion of of Fore limb eel al Hind limb | lame ae 
ai. | length. | width. | nostril. aosunll, reaches ‘digit. reaches aoe 
14 10 |R.L.3N.) Sw. L. A. Sn 10 N. Er. 10 
1s BIN 
72 | Es p.m e 8 
20 13 R. 3 N. = 8. A. Sn 10 Er. 10 
20 13 |R.L.3N.) M.S L. A. Sn 9 F. Sh. 9 
20 15 “A bs L. A. Sn 9 N. Er. 9 
L.3N. 
21 15 R.L.3N. Sw. 8 8 
R.L.3N.) M.S S. A. Sn. B. Sh. & Er. 9 
22 15 5 Sw. 9 9 
i |) ov | as (eee ies, | masa | o | aan, | o 
22 16 |R.L.3N.) Sw. 8. A. Sn 10 5 10 
22 18 es 3 i 11 |B. Sh. &#r) 11 
R.L.3N 
9 o b q 
56 22 17 L. 3N. M.S L. A. Sn 9 A. Sh. 9 
76° 23 16 |R.L.3N.) Sw. op 9 | Bos& E: 9 
25 17 R. 3N. a 8. A. Sn 10 55 10 
24 18 IR.L.3N. ra S 10 5 10 
81 24 16 1 M. Sw L. A. Sn 9 A. Sh. 9 
26 18 ” ” ” 9 ” 9 


Labials. 


= Sy 
bh 


= 
bo e 


is Sli SIS AS Sle Ble fe 
Wala we ele ola ole w 


dim ee Sys Slice! te 
Ble Ble wlo alt we 


Locality. 


Jerusalem. 
Capernaum. 

” 
Maskat. 
Sinaitic Penin- 

(sula. 

Galilee.’ 
Mount Sinai. 
Jerash. 
Plain of Suez. 
Jerusalem. 

” 
Plain of Suez. 
Maskat. 
Mount Carmel. 
Jerusalem. 


Maskat. 


Explanation.—N. Er., near ear ; F. Sh., front of shoulder ; B. 8. & E., between snout and eye. 


PTYODACTYLUS HASSELQUISTII. 67 


Section II. Nostril tubular. (Plate VI. fig. 5 a.) 
Ptyodactylus gecko, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 151 (specimens a to c). 
Ptyodactylus lobatus, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 110 (specimens a@ toc); Trans. Zool. Soc. 
xiil. 1891, p. 111 (specimens 6 to 8). 
Ptyodactylus hasselquistit, var. siphonorhina, Anders. Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 98. 
1 g. Abu Roash, near Gizeh. The late V. Ball, Esq., C.B. 
1 g and1 2. Beni Hassan. M. W. Blackden, Esq. 
1 g and 4 2. Desert, Lower Egypt. A. R. Birdwood, Esq. 


Nostrils tubular, defined by the first labial and three nasals. These geckos are 
smaller than those of the first section of this Phalanx. 
Hab. The Nile valley, the northern portion of the delta, and the Sinaitic Peninsula. 


Cy @y  @s Gre) 4x0) OH tn) trea) HK) KO 


Shou iBieod, || ene, | eee || OHSS eatin pel Hind limb lamelle 

_ 22 || TET | eat, crata, | SRG |) Cre | anata poe reaches | 2 oe Labials. Locality. 
4g | .. | 15 | 10 | L.3N.|Tubular.|L.A.Sn| 9 Sh. 9 | iS | Beypt. 

Ba || 45 || 26 jm) s 9 | Er. 9 | i |thebes. 

| 29 || ae | ae » Wie | Ise 9 | 33 | Lower Egypt. 
@ | @ | 1 | mis 5 s 9 ’ Ot) Pe | ae 
63 i |) da | 5 P 5 || WO) Ree | RO | se | Abn merc: 
6 | 2 | i | aa |, a A 9 | A.Sh. | 9 | i | Lower Epypt. 
63 |) a5: | MMPS aes , |LASn] 9 |B.Sh.Er.| 9 | 72 | Beni Hassan. 
a | 58 | ie |) 76} i z a 9 . Oak ls aes |b oe ee 

@ | 6 | 1 |) 1m fs 5 | AS | OO) AOS. 9 | i | Lower Egypt. 
69 | 55 | 19 | 14 F a - 10 Er. 10 | 73 | Luxor. 

7 | 66 | 2 | ma |g : » | 10 | Ng | 10 | 2 |Sinaitic Peninsula. 
70 | 62 | 20 | 14 F a | Ah. 9 | i> | Lower Egypt. 
| @ | m | wm] 4 5 [tetose © | ie 9 | iF | thebes. 

75 Ml || We ~ 5 » 9 ‘p 9 i Egypt. 

W@ |) o. | Sl) 16 55 Z tp 9 ” als ” 


68 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Var. ouprit. (Plate VII. fig. 9.) 

Ptyodactylus oudrii, Lataste, Le Natur. 1880, p. 229; Boutan, Rev. Biol. N. France, vy. 1893, 
p. 343, fig. 2, texte. 

Ptyodactylus gecko, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) xxxv. no. 2, 1887, p. 35 (Batna 
specimen). 

Ptyodactylus lobatus, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. 1. 1885, p. 110 (specimens p to s). 

Ptyodactylus lobatus, var. oudrii, Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 111 (specimens 1 to 5), 
pl. xiii. fig. 2; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 27; Zool. Centralbl. 1894, p. 376 ; 
Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliv. 1894, p. 76. 


Form stout ; body rather short and depressed; nostril very slightly swollen, formed 
by the rostral, labial, and three nasals. Eye moderate. 10 to 12 upper and 10 or 11 
lower labials. Limbs short and stout; disks moderate ; 7 lamelle on the third digit of 
the fore and the hind limb. ‘Tail depressed; central sulcus present ; verticillate, with 
generally two tubercles on each verticil, granules rather coarse ; tubercles moderately 
large; a few enlarged granules and tubercles on the temporal region before the ear and 
at the gape. Tubercles more or less present on both limbs. Ventrals moderately 
large. 

Olive-brown above, uniformly so or frequently spotted with dark brown ; the limbs, 
digits, and tail barred with brown, the last sometimes spotted. Under surface 
white. 

It attains only to a small size: snout to vent 57 millim. 

Hab. Algeria. 


Snout Forma- | Character ? Ne. ot ee ie: ct 
) Teal Head, | Head, | tion of oe Fore limb eT Hind limb ay 4a Labial TER 
. + 5 n or ‘ 
sont. a length. | width. | yostril. monerile reaches eit reaches digit. aoe ocality. 
+ lod Q cd 12 adil 
39 an 12 9 |R.L.3N.) S. Sw. Sn. 7 Shoulder.| 7 7, | Bou-Saada, Algeria. | 
is ks 10 
43 14 10 + 0 A. Sn 7 " ji 10) s. A 
2 iz ll 
49 16 10 »” ” ” ‘ ” U 10 ” ” 
a 12 
52 16 11 of a Sn 7 p a i a 5 
i ll 
57 16 11 ” ” ” ‘ ” 7 10 2 ” 


PTYODACTYLUS HASSELQUISTII. 69 


Var. RAGAZzI. (Plate VII. figs. 10 & 11.) 


Ptyodactylus lobatus, Del Prato, Atti Soc. Ital. xxxv. 1895, p. 24; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, 
ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 549. 


Form stout ; body rather short and somewhat depressed ; head usually more or less 
depressed ; nostril but little swollen, defined by the rostral, labial, and three nasals, 
but in some the first labial is excluded. Eye moderate; 12—15 upper and lower labials. 
Limbs short and stout; disks large; 8 to 10 lamelle, generally 10—10, frequently 
9—10, occasionally 9—9, rarely 8—9. ‘Tail thick at the base, rounded, verticillate, with 
indications of a median longitudinal sulcus and usually two tubercles on the hinder 
margin of the verticils. Granules moderately large; tubercles keeled or nearly smooth, 
generally present on the fore and hind limbs; a few small tubercles on the temporal 
region, before the ear and sometimes about the gape. Ventrals rather large. 

Dark or pale brown, usually broadly reticulated with darker, enclosing large light- 
coloured spots, four to five from the occiput to the pelvis and with a series on 
the sides of the trunk, but the reticulations and spots are sometimes nearly obsolete 
and the general colour becomes grey-brown. Limbs either marked like the trunk, 
or more or less barred with brown ; tail broadly barred with dark brown, Underparts 
whitish. 

It attains to a large size: ¢, snout to vent 96 millim., tail 68 millim. 

Hab. Eritrea and Shoa. 


No. of 2 No. of 

| Sex. ve Tail. ee Heed, tion of a iy sere on ain ont Labials.| Locality. 
Is oe N68 |) 27 || 19) IRS Swollen |  AUSn, 10) Shay TON) | Ghinda: 
lel on | em |) eB |) oo A 4 Sn 10 |} » | wo | . 

@.| © | 7 | 28 | we | | ° A. Sn, | 5 | 0) 2 i 
lod ge | @ | on | ae & ) Ae || 10 [Agu 10 | = as 

le. 7 | oF | @) a], i Shim | 20 | S| wo | = % 

| 3..| 79 22 | 16 AGE ANT Sous Bayles 9 | = | weit 
IGoul 7 23 | 16 ss “ - Bh llaleg 91> : 

| 


70 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


The head in all the foregoing modifications of this species (P. hasselquistii) is 
marked more or less by three principal depressions, one situated behind each nostril, 
and the other on the snout before the eyes, and continued on to the forehead. They 
are most feebly marked in the typical form from Egypt, but are more pronounced in 
the Hejaz examples of that group. In the second Phalanx they are more strongly 
developed, but in the Southern Syrian and Eritrean geckos they are less so, whereas 
in the Galilean and Algerian groups they are still more feeble. 

The heads of the two sexes differ from each other, as the head of the male is always 
heavier and broader posteriorly than that of the female, and the extent of this difference 
is illustrated by figs. 10 & 11, Plate VII. I have also figured a female lizard from 
Maskat (PI. VI. fig. 4), which has a head, when viewed from above in outline, not 
unlike that of the male of forma typica (fig. 1), whereas the head of the male is not 
only proportionally larger than that of fig. 4, but is much broader; and in both, 
instead of being depressed as in Phalanx I., it is much elevated, and in this the Maskat 
geckos resemble the Sinaitic. Alongside of Pl. VI. fig. 1, I have figured another male, 
fig. 2, which illustrates the variation that may take place in the heads of the same sex. 
The shape of the head of the Medina gecko differs but little from that of the Egyptian 
members of the Phalanx, but is somewhat broader. The greatest amount of variation 
is met with in the heads of the second Phalanx (Pl. VI. figs. 4-5@ and Pl. VII. 
figs. 6-8). When traced northwards through the Sinaitic Peninsula to Syria, it is 
seen to undergo considerable modifications, culminating in the large, elongately oval 
head of the Mount Carmel individual, which, in its general form, is not a very extreme 
variation on the heads of the Eastern Arabian (Maskat) geckos, which, however, are 
characterized by considerable elevation. 

It will be observed that the nostril in the 24 specimens of the first Phalanx is 
defined by the R. L. 3 N., but that in a specimen from Phile the rostral is excluded 
on one side of the head, so that the nasal formula L. 3 N.. so characteristic of the 
tubular-nosed geckos of the second section of the second Phalanx, is produced. This 
is only an individual variation, as in six other specimens from the same locality the 
formula of the nostril of Phalanx typica is adhered to. The specimen also from the 
Mokattam Hills, although it follows the characteristic formula, has the first labial 
entering so feebly into the rim of the nostril that the slightest increase in the size of the 
nasal process of the rostral or in the dimensions of the posterior inferior nasal would have 
excluded it, and the formula R. 3 N. would have resulted. The degree to which the 
nostril is swollen is the subject of a certain amount of variation. In a specimen from 
Edfu it is so little tumid that it may be described as nearly flat, while in one from 
Wadi Halfa it is only slightly swollen compared with the majority of the specimens, 
whereas in the Medina geckos it is more swollen than in the Egyptian. 

The nasal formula of the geckos of the second Phalanx, as in every other detail of 
their structure, is the subject of great variation. Thus in 11 out of 17 specimens 


PTYODACTYLUS HASSELQUISTII. 71 


of the first section the nostril is swollen in a varying degree, and is defined by the 
rostral, first labial, and three nasals. In two out of the number tabulated the first 
labial is excluded, whereas in four the asymmetrical formula R. L. 3 N. and L. 3 N. is 
present. In the second section the nostril, instead of being merely swollen, rises above 
the snout as a short tubular orifice defined by the first labial and three nasals. The 
geckos, however, from the Plain of Suez by their semitubular or much swollen nostrils 
link the geckos with essentially tubular nostrils to those of the merely swollen type 
found in the Sinaitic Peninsula, Syria, and Eastern Arabia. 

In those asymmetrical nostrils the nostril with the formula L. 3 N. is never tubular, 
so that there are other factors at work in the production of a tubular nostril besides 
the mere presence of the shields in question. ‘The tubularity in the second section 
of Phalanx II. appears to be brought about primarily by the considerable vertical 
extension of the nasal process of the first labial, which rises above the level of the 
rostral, and the concomitant nearly vertical expansion of the nasals. ‘The exclusion of 
the rostral among the members of the first section is apparently due to slight variations 
in the breadth of the nasal processes of the rostral and of the first labial and of the 
anterior upper nasal. If the nasal process of the second of these shields is large and 
that of the first small, the former abuts against the upper nasal and so shuts out the 
restral; on the other hand, a reduction in the size of the nasal process of the first 
labial gives rise to the formula R.3 N.; whereas if the nasal processes of the 
rostral and first labial are small, the nasals exclude them from taking any part in 
the formation of the nostril, and the formula 3 N. results, as in the well-marked 
P. homolepis, Blanfd., of which, however, only a few examples are known. 

In the varieties oudrii and ragazzi there are no exceptions to the formula R.L. 5 N., 
which, with the exceptions indicated, is the prevailing formula throughout the 
species. 

All the geckos of the second Phalanx have more or less what can only be described 
as a tough skin compared with the generally soft skin of the members of the first 
Phalanx. Among the latter, however, an individual may now and again be met with 
having its skin almost identical in texture with the skin of the second Phalanx. 
The specimens I have met with are extremely few, and it is noteworthy that they have 
been found in the open desert, whereas the softest-skinned geckos are encountered in 
the recesses of monuments and temples and in houses; but whether these differences 
in the habits of life are sufficient to account for the dermal modification remains to be 
ascertained. The skin, however, of the geckos of the second Phalanx becomes coarser 
in Syria than it is in the Plain of Suez. 

There can be no doubt that the range of variation in the Sinaitic Peninsula and in 
Southern and Northern Syria is much greater than what prevails in the first Phalanx. 
This is very manifest in a number of details, even in the general form of the body 
itself. The lizard fig. 4 (Plate VI.) has almost the character of the body of the typical 


72 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


form, but its high head and body practically devoid of depression are characters of 
the second group, which, with its coarser skin, entitle it to be placed in it. On the 
other hand, the smaller character of its disks and the presence of nine lamelle on 
the third digit of the fore and hind limb are features of the typical form. At the 
same time, geckos presenting these characters are only met with in Eastern Arabia ; 
but they suggest that, when Central Arabia is opened up to zoological science, further 
modifications will be forthcoming, linking them still more intimately with the geckos 
of Southern Syria and the Sinaitic Peninsula. Mr. Boulenger has already pointed out 
that the Maskat geckos resemble those from Mount Sinai. 

The gecko from Palmyra figured by M. Boutan as P. barroist recalls the geckos of 
Maskat, of the Sinaitic Peninsula, and of Southern Syria. In the type of P. guttatus, 
Heyden, the body is covered with a meshwork of reddish lines, marked here and there 
with dark brown spots, the interstices of the meshwork enclosing pale blue spots, 
from which the name of the species is derived. In P. barroisi the lines of the mesh- 
work become reduced to pale yellowish brown, enclosing whitish spots, so that it 
conforms to the coloration of P. guttatus. In the Maskat geckos the longitudinal 
and oblique lines of the meshwork have disappeared, and with them the pale spots; 
but in what remains of the meshwork there are here and there darker spots, as in 
P. guttatus. At the same time, the coloration of the Maskat geckos is almost 
identical with that of some of the members of Phalanx I. (compare figs. 1 & 4). 
Their high heads, more rounded bodies and tails have led me to place them in the 
position they occupy. 

The geckos from Lower Egypt and of the Plain of Suez have stouter bodies than 
those from Maskat, and in this particular they resemble the geckos of the Sinaitic 
Peninsula. Among the members of this Phalanx found further to the north, at 
Jerusalem, Mount Carmel, and Palmyra, the body becomes even stouter and shorter, 
and in Galilee the shortening is carried still further. The latter (Pl. VII. fig. 8) lead 
directly towards the Algerian geckos. Although those from Galilee and from Syria 
generally differ so considerably from the typical P. guttatus, still they present such an 
array of variations that when to them are added those of the geckos from the Sinaitic 
Peninsula, the Plain of Suez, Maskat, and the Nile valley the series is so complete 
that it is impossible to consent to the view propounded by M. Boutan that more 
than one species is represented in Syria. 

In the accompanying table (p. 73) I have recorded the number of lamelle on the 
third digit of the fore and of the hind limb. 

In the first Phalanx 8—8 and 9—9 lamelle are equally prevalent on the limbs, 
while a fourth of the 24 specimens tabulated have 8 anteriorly and 9 posteriorly. 
In the second Phalanx 9—9 is by far the most frequent number on both extremities, 
as they occur in 21 specimens out of 32. Nine is not associated with any other 
number; but 10 is present in a fourth of the specimens, while 8 is exceptional and 


~ 
Us 


PTYODACTYLUS HASSELQUISTII. 


Il rare. In the five specimens of var. owdrii there are only 7 lamelle. In the next, 
var. ragazzi, 16 out of the 32 specimens have 10 lamellz on both limbs, nine have 
9—10, four have 9, and three have 8—9. A glance at the accompanying table will 
show that the lamelle of this variety start at a higher figure than those of either the first 
or second Phalanx, and that the highest number 10 is much more frequent than in either 


TaBLE showing the number of specimens in each Group possessing a certain number 
of lamelle on the third digit of the fore and hind limb. 


Fore limb, Hind limb, First Phalanx, |Second Phalanx,| Var. oudrii, Var. ragazzi, 
number of number of number of | number of number of number of 
lamelle. lamell. specimens. specimens. specimens. specimens. 
7 i me a ge 5 
8 8 9 2 
8 9 ~ 6 3 
9 9 9 21 4 
9 10 00 0° 9° 9 
10 10 Oc 8 30 16 
11 abt ae 1 


of them. In this variety the formula 8—9 occurs only in two specimens from Alali, 
13 miles N. of Assab, and in one from Shoa, whereas in the four other geckos from the 
last locality the formula is 9—10. The presence of 8—9 brings these Alali and Shoa 
geckos very close to the geckos of the typical form in number of their lamelle. 

The labial shields (see table, p. 74) yield results much akin to those of the lamelle, 
in this respect: that the upper labials of the first and also of the second Phalanx are 
generally more numerous than they are in var. oudrii, whereas in var. ragazzi they 
never fall so low as they do in these two groups. In the case of the lower labials, they 
are sometimes quite as few in the second Phalanx as they are in the former variety ; 
but this is not so in var. ragazzi, in which, like its lamelle, they start at a higher 
number than do any of the others. Two of the geckos of the second Phalanx with 10 
and 11 lower labials may be taken as representing P. puiseuai, Boutan (Pl. VII. fig. 8). 
They are also distinguished by a low number of lamelle, viz. §; and in connexion with 
this and the low number of labials the fact is borne in upon us that these Galilean 
geckos are more intimately related to those of Algeria than are any of the others. 

The eye, like every other part of the economy of these lizards, is subject to variation. 
In the first and in the second Phalanx it is larger than in the two varieties. 

L 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Upper Labials. Lower Labials. 
Number of —— 
Labials. ‘ - F 
First Phalanx,|Second Phalanx,| Var. owdrii, | Var. ragazzi, ||First Phalanx,| Second Phalanx,| Var. oudrii, | Var. ragazzi, 
specimens. specimens, specimens. | specimens. specimens. specimens, specimens, specimens. 
10 ab 60 iL ae Me 3 3 
11 3 3 2 7 8 10 2 
12 ai 15 Z Il 11 | 11 50 3 
13 12 12 Rey 3 6 7 1 
14+ 3 1 2 1 2 
15 1 ] 1 


This genus is represented in Sind, Arabia, Northern Syria (Aleppo), southwards 
through Palestine, the Sinaitic Peninsula, and the valley of the Nile to Nubia, and to 
the south-east in Eritrea and Shoa, and to the west in Algeria. 

P. hasselquistii is found under the most diverse physical and climatic conditions, a 
circumstance to be kept in mind in view of the remarkable variations to which it is 
subject. At Aleppo, 1143 feet above the sea, the most northerly point in its distribu- 
tion, or nearly so, snow falls almost every year, although it lies only on the higher 
mountains ; but at Jerusalem (2550 feet), where this gecko is present, snow and frost 
are not uncommon, and the whole country at that elevation may be under snow for a 
short time!. Similar conditions also prevail, in winter, in the higher parts of the 
Tell of Algeria, where this gecko is also found. 

P. hasselquistii likewise frequents the subtropical basin of Lake Huleh, the imme- 
diate surroundings of which are little more than a swamp, in which buffaloes wallow, 
while the surrounding slopes are extremely fertile. Sixteen years ago, on my way 
from Khan Jubb Yusef to the beautiful spring of Mellaha, near Lake Huleh, I 
captured among some rocks the gecko (fig. 8) represented on Plate VII. It is also 
found at Jerash (1757 feet), on the opposite side of the Jordan, a district watered by 
the Jabbok, rich in oleanders, and with hills wooded with pines and oaks. It is also 
present on the green, well-watered slopes of Mount Carmel, a name that signifies 
orchard. I likewise met with it among the ruins of Capernaum, on the fertile shores of 
Lake ‘Tiberias, 682 feet below the sea-level, while further to the south it has been 
obtained from the arid surroundings of the Dead Sea and from the slopes of Sinai. 
In Egypt it is found not only in the desert, but in houses on the alluvium, and in the 


‘ Mr. Boulenger has recorded the presence of the gecko @dura nivaria on the heights of the Drakensberg 
range, N.W. Natal, and also apparently enjoying life amid the ice and snow (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 608). 


i} 


=I 
Or 


PTYODAOCTYLUS HASSHELQUISTII. 


dark recesses of monuments and temples, and in the Sinaitic Peninsula in the moist 
warm grotto of Hamman Farun. Shoa, where it is also present, has been described 
by M. Aubry! as a country of high mountains covered with dense luxuriant vegetation, 
of streams breaking into numerous cascades and winding through magnificent prairies, 
of fields of cotton, maize, tief (the grass of the country), wheat, barley, beans, and 
peas, a region in which reigns perpetual spring. 

I have frequently met with it in the daytime in the chambers of temples and on 
their walls outside, and I have captured it at midday on rocks in the desert. It is said 
to be common in native houses, but I have never observed it in any of the hotels 1 
have resided in at Alexandria, Suez, Cairo, Mena, Heluan, Assiut, Luxor, and Assuan. 

It emits a cry that has aptly been compared by Sir J. G. Wilkinson to the sound 
made by a man in urging on a horse. 

There is a native superstition that certain kinds of food become poisoned by contact 
with this gecko, and if eaten produce leprosy; and Hasselquist states that at Cairo he 
saw the hand of a man, over which a gecko had run, become in an instant covered with 
red pustules and inflamed, accompanied by itching like that caused by the sting of a 
nettle. Cuvier has suggested that this may have been produced by the extremely fine 
claws of the gecko. 

The natives of Egypt, in harmony with their superstition regarding this hzard, and 
in reference to the white leprous colour of those that frequent human habitations and 
the recesses of buildings and caverns, call it Qo, »), abu bors, the father of lepers. 
I am indebted to Mr. A. G. Ells, of the British Museum, for having directed my 
attention to the most interesting work of Damiri? on animals, in Arabic, entitled 
‘ Hayat ul-Hayawan’ (‘The Life of Animals, or a Dictionary of Zoology’), written in the 
latter halt of the 14th century. Mr. Ellis informs me that, as the term (Qe,, bors, does 
not occur in Damiri’s work, it cannot be regarded as classical. I have found it in 
common use with the Arabs of the present day for all the species of geckos, whether 
they be leprous-looking or not. 

Dr. Walter Innes has informed me that this lizard has also another name, Ws$ 4)!, 
abu kaff. The latter term kaff means in Arabic the palm of the hand; so I conclude 
this name refers to the distention of the digits of this gecko. 

The figure of a lizard, to the ancient Egyptians, signified “‘ many” or ‘“‘ multitude.” 
As a few illustrations of its occurrence on the monuments as a hieroglyph may be 
mentioned its presence on the tomb of Ptah Hotep; on the outer wall of the hypostyle 
of Karnak; on the temples of Luxor and Abu Simbul; and on a slab of red granite that 


* R. Geogr. Soc. Paris, 1886. 
> His real name was Kemal ud-den Abu’l Baga Muhammed Ben Musa Ben Isa ad-Damiri Ash-Shafei ; but 
he was known as Damiri, probably from his having been born in the town of that name to the north of 
Mansura. The date of his birth was 1349 a.p., and he died in 1405. He was a professor in two of the 
mosques in Cairo. (Nouy. Biogr. Gén. (Hoefer) xiv. 1855, p. 474.) 
L 2 


76 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


formed part of an inscription of Apepi, one of the kings of Avyaris before the XVIIth 
Dynasty, preserved in the British Museum (1101). | 
Lizards are to be seen in the hands of seated human figures painted on the outside 
of the coffin of Pachrat-Heru-A-Usheb, in the British Museum (6666); these lizards 
are represented with swollen feet: and a similar lizard is found on the inner coffin of a 
priestess of Amen from Dér-el-Bahari (24794 B.M.), held upwards by the tail in the 
hand of an erect hawk-headed human figure standing before a seated figure, apparently 
of Amen. It also occurs on the other side of this coffin, in the hands of similar hawk- 
headed figures. Evidently the same kind of lizard likewise appears in the hands of men 
in the tomb of Rameses III. Professor Flinders Petrie has shown me two figures of genii 
also holding lizards, from the north brick pyramid of Dahshur. There is a necklace 
in the British Museum consisting of a string of small red stone beads!, and between 
each bead hangs a gold pendant, about half an inch long, alternately in the form of a 
lizard and of a small oval. Whether these lizards were merely regarded as ornaments, 
or perchance as charms, it is impossible to say, but, in other necklaces, the sacred perch 
(Lates niloticus) also occurs as a pendant. The only lizard which all of these lizard- 
figures suggest to me is Ptyodactylus, which, from its striking characters, doubtless 
quite as much impressed the imaginations of the ancient Kgyptians as it does those 
of the inhabitants of the Nile valley of the present day. As a frequenter of caverns 
and dark chambers, it may be that the hawk-headed figure holding it up by the tail 


represents Har-Hat, the guardian of temples. 


' The necklace is anong some Egyptian ornaments, but no number is visible. 


=I 
a | 


HEMIDACTYLUS FLAVIVIRIDIS. 


HEMIDACTYLUS. 
Hemidactylus, Cuv. Reg. An. 1. 1817, p. 47; Gray, Ann. Phil. x. (2) 1825, p. 199. 

Basal portion of the digits expanded into an oval disk, formed below by two rows 
of transverse lamelle separated from each other by a median sulcus; distal portion of 
digits slender, the second phalanx rising from the middle of the disk; digits clawed, 
free or somewhat webbed at the base. Pupil vertical. Praanal or femoral pores 


present in the male. 


HEMIDACTYLUS FLAVIVIRIDIS, Riippell. (Plate V. fig. 5.) 


Hemidactylus flaviviridis, Riippell, Neue Wirbelth. 1835, p. 18, pl. vi. fig. 2; Dum. & Bibr. iii. 
1836, p. 347; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil.) xxxv. no. 2, 1887, p.33; Matschie, Sitz.- 
Ber. Ges. nat. Freund. 1893, no. 1, p. 29; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 642; Herpet. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 26, 98.~ 

Hemidactylus coctei, D. & B. i. 1836, p. 365; Cantor, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xvi. pt. 1. 1847, 
p- 629; A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, 1851, p. 39; Giinther, Rept. B. Ind. 
1864, p. 109; Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) ix. 1872, p. 86; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 226; Stein- 
dachner, Novara Rept. 1867, p. 13; Theobald, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxxvii. pt. ii. extra no. 
1868, p. 29; Stoliczka, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xh. pt. ii. 1872, p. 98; Blanford, Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1876, p.636; Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xlv. pt. 11. 1876, p. 18; id. op. cit. xlvii. pt. 11.1879, 
p- 125; Klunzinger, Zeitsch. Ges. Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878, p. 94; Murray, Zool. Sind, 1884, 
p. 359; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. 1. 1885, p. 1387; op. cit. iii. 1887, p. 485; Ann. & Mag. N. H. 
(5) xx. 1887, p. 407; Fauna Brit. Ind., Rept. & Batr. 1890, p. 92; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, 
ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 550; Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. ed Anfibi Mar Rosso, 1886, p. 14; 
Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) xxxv. 1887, p. 33; Boettger, Ber. Offenb. Ver. xxix.— 
xxxil. 1892, p. 62; Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 29; Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, 
p- 865. 

Boltalia sublevis, Gray, Zoo). Misc. 1842, p. 58. 

Hoplopodion cocteaui, Fitzinger, Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 104. 

Hemidactylus bengaliensis, Anderson, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xl. pt. 1. 1871, p. 14. 


1. Suez. Rev. Walter Statham. 


2. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
3. Suakin. British Officers’ Mess House. 


Head rather short and broad, forehead concave; the length of the snout exceeds 
the distance between the eye and the ear by the width of the ear; ear-opening oval, 
slightly oblique, and about half the diameter of the eye. Rostral nearly twice as broad 
as high, with a median furrow above ; nostril defined by the rostral, first labial, and 5 
nasals, but, in some instances, the rostral is excluded; 12 to 16 upper, and 9 to 11 
lower labials. Mental much broader than the rostral, triangular, with a large chin- 


78 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


shield on each side of it broadly in contact with its fellow, with one or two small 
shields behind. Limbs and digits well developed; 8—10 prominent lamelle on 
the pollex and hallux; on the remaining digits of both extremities the lamelle 
vary from 10 to 13, the distal ones of the manus and the distal and proximal plates of 
some of the digits of the toes being occasionally undivided. Body uniformly granular, 
the granules smallest on the vertex, increasing in size on the snout, and largest on the 
sides, where there are a few generally larger than the others, and sometimes a large 
tubercle before the shoulder, and a fewrounded tubercles on the sacral region; abdominal 
scales cycloid, imbricate, and larger than the lateral granules. Tail generally longer 
than the head and body, depressed, flat below, consisting of a series of verticils, each 
of which is made up of about 13, more or less, transverse series of granules, with a 
large tubercle on the upper surface, external to each side of the mesial line, and with 
another still larger at the lower angle, both of these tubercles being placed close to 
the posterior borders of the verticils; a longitudinal line of large transverse plates on 
the under surface. 6 or 7 femoral pores (5-9 in Bengal specimens). 

In life the general colour of Suakin specimens is pale lemon-yellow with a faint 
greenish-grey tinge, the underparts being of a richer lemon and the lamelle clear 
silvery white. On the back, there are occasionally faint indications of the presence of 
dark transverse undulating bands. 


Measurements of Specimens (in millim.). 


Suez. Suakin. Suakin. Suakin. Hadramut. 
| | 
| Snout tovent.............. 59 66 72 74 82 
ii entstoxbipyotataillerry-erer tort: 70 63 83 85 92 
| Length of head ............ 18:5 19 20°5 21 22 
laWadthyotsheadmeemrrerenserset ter 13-2 13°7 U7 16 18 
Length of fore limb ........ 25 26 31:2 30 34°5 
s hindslimbeeererer 28:5 31:7 34:3 37 | 40 
| i 
L i 6 7 6 6 
Femoral pores ........ 
[R 7 7 6 6 7 


The largest specimen of this species as yet on record was obtained at Pinang. ‘The 
body and head were a fraction more than 94 millim. in length, and the tail close on 
83 millim. long; but from the accompanying table it will be seen that although there 
is not much difference between the total length of the Pinang specimen and the one 


HEMIDACTYLUS FLAVIVIRIDIS. 79 


from the Hadramut, the length of the latter is largely due to the length of its tail, and 
that its head and body are actually 13 millim. shorter than the Pinang individual. 

It is common in houses at Suez and Suakin, and occurs also at Kosseir. In Egypt 
it has never been observed as yet in any inland town. 

It is generally seen after sundown hunting for insects on the walls, but I have seen 
it similarly occupied inside houses in the middle of the day. When disturbed it emits 
a sound which can only be described as a kind of squeak. 

Although the lamelle are arranged in two lateral groups, they begin distally by a 
single lamella, and in the first digit of the hind foot they, as a rule, end proximally 
in two azygos lamelle in the mesial line, and in the fifth digit of the same foot in one. 

The following is the arrangement of the paired lamelle taken from one individual, 
beginning with the first digit :— 


We) 
4 
(=) 
- 
i=) 


Fore foot ...... @ 
Hind foot ...... 8 11 10 


In only two of the individuals obtained by me are the femoral pores symmetrically 
arranged. Seven is the highest and six the lowest number, but in India there may be 
as many as nine and as few as five pores. 

The colour of this lizard, according to Dr. Stoliczka, ‘“‘ changes very rapidly during 
life ; sometimes the transverse bands turn almost to blackish brown, and another time 
they become quite obsolete.” 

The species was first described by Ruppell from specimens obtained at Massowah ; 
but in the following year, 1836, Duméril and Bibron redescribed it as H. coctwi, from 
specimens received by them from Bengal and Bombay. Some years ago, Mr. Boulenger 
examined the types of H. flaviviridis, Riippell, preserved in the Frankfort Museum, 
and arrived at the conclusion that they were identical with H. cocte?. Prof. Boettger, 
with a specimen of the so-called H. coctwi from Bombay and the types of this species 
before him, arrived at a similar result, which likewise happened in my case, when I 
compared the foregoing specimens together, in 1893, being at the time quite unaware 
of Mr. Boulenger’s and Prof. Boettger’s observations. 

Duméril and Bibron in their description of the genus Hem/dactylus' direct attention 
to Riippell’s H. flaviviridis, which they say appeared to them to be distinct from all 
of the species described in their third volume ; but at the same time they do not include 
it as a species, and add that it ought to occupy a place alongside of //. coctei, because 
‘ce Saurien lui ressemble par la forme de ses doigts et de sa queue, aussi bien que par 
les écailles uniformes que revétent les parties supérieures de son corps.” 

It is thus quite evident that their term H. coct#i must give precedence to 
H. flaviviridis. 

To Massowah, Bengal, and Bombay, Cantor, in 1847, added Pinang as another 


’ Erpét. Gén, iii, 1836, p. 347. 


80 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


locality in which it was found; and Giinther, in 1864, mentioned its presence at 
Patna. Steindachner, in 1867, described a specimen from Calcutta. Dr. Stoliczka, in 
his account of the distribution of the Indian and Burmese species of Hemidactylus, 
written in 1872, mentioned that this species was spread over the entire Gangetic delta 
and extended eastwards to the Khasia Hills, Cachar, northwards to Sikkim, through 
Western Bengal, the North-west Provinces of India up to the foot of the hills ‘at 
Kangra and Hardwar, and westwards to the Punjab. He also stated that he had 
seen two specimens said to have come from Pegu. Mr. Blanford, in 1876, recorded 
it from Sind, and, in 1879, included it in a list of some reptiles from Ajmere in 
Rajputana. In 1878, Dr. Klunzinger met with it at Kosseir on the Egyptian 
coast. Mr. J. Murray, in 1884, stated that it occurred in the Deccan, Concan, 
Cutch, Quetta, and Baluchistan, and, in 1885, Mr. Boulenger recorded it from 
Ellore, and, in 1887, from Maskat in Arabia. In 1892, Prof. Boettger added 
Aden as another Arabian locality; and in the following year my collector brought 
back a specimen from near the seaport of Makulla, also in Arabia. In the same 
year I found it to be the common house-gecko of Suez, and in the following year 
that it was equally prevalent at Suakin. Within the last few years it has also been 
found at Jask and Fao, on the Persian Gulf, and recently it has been recorded by 


Mr. Boulenger from Ghinda, in Eritrea. 


HEmipDactytwvs Turcicus, Linn. (Plate V. fig. 3.) 


The Small Spotted Grey Lizard, Kdwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, pt. iv. 1751, pl. 204. 

Lacerta turcica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 362. 

Gecus cyanodactylus, Rafinesque, Carat. nuovi gen. e nuove sp. An. Sicilia, 1810, p. 9. 

Gecko meridionalis, Risso, Hist. Nat. Europ. Mérid. 11. 1826, p. 87. 

Hemidactylus triedrus, Fitz. N. Class. Rept. 1826, p. 46; Bonap. Fauna Ital. 11. Rett. ed Anfibi, 
1832-41, plate ; Steindachner, Novara Rept. 1867, p. 12. 

Hemidactylus granosus, Heyden, Riippell’s Atlas nordl. Afr., Rept. 1827, p. 17, pl. v. fig. 1. 

Hemidactylus robustus, Heyden, |. c. pp. 19-20; Riippell, 1. ec. p. 300. 

Gecko verruculatus, Cuy. Reg. An. nouv. éd. ii. 1829, p. 54. 

Hemidactylus verrucosus, Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. Kingd. ix. 1831, p. 50; Riippell, Mus. Senck. 
iii, 1845, p. 300. . 

Hemidactylus verruculatus, Bibron et Bory de St. Vincent, Expéd. Se. Morée, Rept. 1833, p. 68, 
pl. xi. fig. 2; part., Dum. & Bibr. in. 1836, p. 359; Fitzinger, Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 105 ; 
Guichenot, Explor. Se. de ’ Algérie, Sc. Phys. Zool. v. 1850, p. 4; Duméril, Cat. Rept. Mus. 
Paris, 1851, p. 39; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ac. 1862, p. 271; Steindachner, Ins. Cypern, Unger & 
Kotschy, 1865, p. 572; De Betta, Faun. Ital. pt. 4, Rett. ed Anfibi, 1874, p. 20; Schreib. 
Herp. Europ. 1875, p. 487; Gasco, Viaggio in Egitto, pt. ii. 1876, p. 110; Bosca, Ann. Hist, 
Nat, Madrid, vi. 1877, p. 48; Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. Erdk. Berl. xiii, 1878, p. 94; 


HEMIDACTYLUS TURCICUS. 81 


Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou, 1879, no. 3, p. 35; Boettger, Zeitschr. ges. Naturw. Berl. 
(Giebel) (2) iv. 1879, p. 511; Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1880, p. 192; Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. xii. 
1881, p. 381; Vaillant, Révoil, Faune et Flore Pays Comalis, 1882, p. 16 ; Lortet, Arch. Mus. 
Lyon, 111. 1883, p. 187 ; Reichenow, Sitz.-Ber. Ges. nat. Fr. Berl. 1888, p. 149; Tristram, West. 
Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 153; Giglioli, Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, vi. 1888, p. 65. 

Gecko (Hemidactylus) verruculatus, Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 2, vi. 1836, p. 309. 

Hemidactylus maculatus, Gervais, Ann. Se. Nat. sér. 3, x. 1848, p. 205. 

Hemidactylus cyanodactylus, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 23. 

Hemidactylus turcicus, Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1878-79, p. 74; Kobelt, Reiseerimn. 
Algerien und Tunis, 1885, p. 464; Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 28; Boulenger, Cat. Liz. 
B. M. i. 1885, p. 126; op. cit. 11. 1887, p.485 ; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 115; Ann. Mus. 
Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 550; Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. ed Anfibi Mar Rosso, 
1886, p. 13; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil. sér.) xxxv. no. 2, 1887, p. 32 (not specim. 4826 
=sinaita) ; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlii. 1893, p. 359; op. cit. xliv. 1894, p. 77; 
Peracca, Boll. Mus. Zool. Torino, ix. no. 167, 1894, p.6; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Exypt, 
1896, pp. 26, 98. 


9. Maryut District, west of Alexandria. 
@. Houses, Alexandria. 

¢. Shaluf, Suez. 

9. Mokattam Hills. Dr. Walter Innes. 
9. KHdfu, Upper Egypt. 

dg. Wadi Halta. 
5 a 

2 ga 

2. 


eo 


and 3 9. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
and 2 ¢. Island of Shadwan, Gulf of Suez. Mr. John Strathearn. 
Ras Gharib. Mr. James Robertson. 


WwW WO 0 


Head oval. Snout rounded, its length generally exceeds the distance between the 
eye and the ear; the diameter of the eye more than half the distance between the 
eye and the ear; the latter oblique in position, irregularly oval, and not quite half the 
diameter of the eye. Rostral considerably broader than high, grooved above ; nostril 
formed by the rostral, first labial, and 3 nasals. Upper labials vary from 7 to 10, 
8 and 9 being the prevalent numbers ; lower labials 6 to 9, 7 being the most common 
number. Mental large, generally triangular; a large chin-shield on either side of it, 
the two broadly in contact behind it, and a small shield on the outside of each. Limbs 
and digits of moderate length; 6 to 8 lamellz on the pollex and hallux, the prevailing 
numbers on each being 7, 6 being very exceptional on the pollex, but common on the 
hallux ; 8 to 10 lamelle on the fourth finger, the former number being most prevalent ; 
9 to 11 lamelle on the fourth toe, 10 being the most common number, and 11 more 
frequent than 9. The front of the head covered with large granules, and the back 
part with much smaller granules, with scattered round tubercles. The upper surface 
of the body covered with minute granules, having 14 to 16 more or less longitudinal 
rows of oval or trihedral keeled tubercles, somewhat varying in size and larger than 
the interspaces between them. Upper surface of the fore limb covered with slightly 

M 


82 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


imbricate scales, with large tubercles on the radial portion; hind limb with granules 
and intermixed large tubercles. Abdominal scales small, smooth, imbricate, rounded 
or hexagonal. ‘Tail longer than the body and head, variable, somewhat depressed at 
the base, cylindrical beyond, and tapering to a fine point, covered with minute scales 
arranged in feeble verticils and with transverse rows of keeled tubercles; under 
surface covered with more or less transversely enlarged plates. Four to ten preanal 
pores, exceptionally two. 

Colour light brown, greyish, sandy yellow or pink above. In the dark specimens 
of the Mediterranean coast-line and from along the banks of the Freshwater Canal at 
Suez, and in those from the Nile valley, the body and head are covered with dark 
blackish-brown spots and markings, the spots generally involving a number of tubercles 
or single tubercles, many of the tubercles being white. Occasionally the dark 
markings on the body tend to form transverse bands; a dark brown band from the eye 
to the snout and from the eye along the temporal region, sometimes broken up into 
spots. Underparts white. The geckos from Ras Gharib and from the island of 
Shadwan conform to the general colour of their surroundings and have a pinkish tinge, 
the markings being obsolete or nearly so, while those from Tor in the Sinaitic Peninsula 
are greyish pink. 

The following are the measurements of the largest females in my collection :— 
Snout to vent 59 millim., tail 64 millim. ; snout to vent 56 millim., tail 67 millim. 

It will be observed from the foregoing list of specimens that I obtained only two 
from up the Nile, viz. from Edfu and Wadi Halfa. I never observed it myself in the 
neighbourhood of Cairo; but it is found there, as I am indebted to Dr. W. Innes for a 
specimen from the Mokattam Hills. It is more plentiful along the sea-face of the 
delta, from Maryut to the east, and is occasionally found around Suez. Mr. John 
Strathearn informs me that it is not uncommon on the island of Shadwan; and as 
Mr. James Robertson was so good as to send me three specimens from the neighbour- 
hood of the lighthouse of Ras Gharib, it seems to be well represented there. It is 
common at Suakin. 

The specimens captured at Maryut were found under stones amid the ruins of 
Said Pasha’s palace, and those at Alexandria in a house ; while the one from Shaluf I 
came across in digging out a Nesokia from its burrows among grass on the banks of 
the Freshwater Canal. 

Besides its cireum-Mediterranean distribution, the African portion of which extends 
from Algeria (Gervais, Guichenot, &c.) through Cyrenaica (Reichenow) to Egypt (Gray), 
it spreads southwards along the Nile valley to Sennaar (Peters), Abyssinia (Heyden), 
Somaliland (Vaillant), Eritrea, Assab (Giglioli and Boulenger), northwards along the 
coast of Egypt. It occurs also in the Sinaitic Peninsula (Werner and Anderson), 
Arabia Petrea (Riippell), Hadramut (Anderson), Persia (Loulenger), Baluchistan 
(Boulenger), Sind (Murray and Boulenger). 


HEMIDACTYLUS TURCICUS. 83 


Var. sINAITA. (Plate V. fig. 4.) 


Hemidactylus turcicus, Strauch, Mém. Acad. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) xxxv. no. 2, 1887, p. 32 (specim. 
4826 only). 

Hemidactylus sinaitus, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 126; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 5382; Ann. 
Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvii.) 1897, p. 277; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 639; 
Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 98. 

] juv. Wé&di Halfa. Major Henry d’Alton Harkness. 

43,3 9,and1juv. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 

dg and4 9. Suakin. 

1 gd and4 9. Durrur. 

In the lizard which Mr. Boulenger described from the Sinaitic Peninsula as 
H., sinaitus the nostril is formed by the rostral and three nasals, the first labial being 
excluded. In my collection there are 26 specimens from Suakin and Durrur that 
agree with it. 

Twenty-two of them have the nostril defined only by the rostral and three nasals, 
but in four the first labial enters into the nostril. 

Mr. Boulenger has also described from Western Somaliland two specimens, which 
he referred to H. stnaitus, in which the first labial is excluded by a small shield. 

In describing a collection of reptiles from Aden, brought together by Colonel 
Yerbury, I referred six geckos to H. sinaitus, but only in one of them was the first 
labial excluded on both sides of the head, while in one it entered on one side and did 
not do so on the other. In the remaining four specimens, the first labial shield 
entered as a minute point, but in so doing produced a nostril structurally identical 
with the nostril of H. turcicus. It is thus evident that the nostril in 1. sinaitus is 
subject to variation, but at the same time the rule is for the first labial to be excluded. 

In the type of ZH. sinaitus there are no enlarged subcaudals, and they are also 
absent in the generality of the Suakin and Durrur geckos ; but individuals from these 
localities are met with, as also in the Aden lizards, in which the subcaudals are only 
slightly transversely enlarged, whereas three of the Aden specimens and two from 
Western Somaliland have enlarged subcaudals as in H. turcicus (Pl. V. fig. 3). 
But Professor Giglioli states that in Italian examples of H. turcicus these plates are 
occasionally but little enlarged. 

The dorsal tubercles of H. sinaitus are somewhat smaller than those of H. turcicus, 
and in this respect they resemble the Eastern Sudan specimens and those from Aden ; 
but in those from the latter locality, some are even smaller than in the type, whereas 
in the Western Somaliland geckos they are quite as large as in 17. turctcus. 

The following table shows the distribution of the lamelle in //. turcicus and in its 


variety sinatta :— 
M2 


84 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Distribution of lameile on digits of Hemidactylus turcicus. 


Pollex. Hallux. 
No. of | No. of | No. of | No of | No. of | No. of || No. of | No. of | No. of | No. of | No. of | No. of | No. of 
lamell.|lamellz.| lamelle.|lamelli.| lamelle. 


lamellee. || lamellee.| lamellse.|lamellze.| lamellee.| lamells.| lamelle.| lamelle. 


5 6 ii 8 9 10 5 6 7 


ao 
ie) 


10 11 


Present | Present | Present | Present | Present 


Present || Present | Present | Present | Present 
on on on on on 


Present | Present | Present 


on on on on on on on on 
1 18 8 O00 50 9 13 3 
Ne apm Sv a 
27 specimens. 25 specimens. 
| 
| Fourth finger. Fourth toe. 


fag | | a lo |w) 
eee 


— || 


27 sim 
7 specimens. 


28 specimens. 


Distribution of lamellae on digits of H. turcicus, var. sinaita. 


Pollex. Hallux. 

5 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 
— Va — |\— 1 | 
25 specimens. 24 specimens. 

Fourth finger. Fourth toe. 
| 
| 
| 9 | 16 | | 2Z | 9 | 13 | | 
| = - = = SSS 

25 specimens. 25 specimens. 


It will be observed that in the specimens of H. turcicus that have come under my 
observation the number of lamelle never falls so low as five, six being the lowest 


number; whereas in sinatta one-fifth of the specimens have five lamelle on the pollex, 
and more than one-half have five on the hallux. 


In H1, turcicus the lamelle vary 
from 6 to 8, and in its variety sinaita from 4 to 8. 


In both, 7 is the most prevalent 


HEMIDACTYLUS TURCICUS. 85 


number on the pollex. Six is exceptionally present in H. turcicus on the pollex, but 
it is common in sinaita; whilst 8, which is not uncommon in the former, is so in the 
latter. On the fourth finger the lamelle of H. turcicus vary from 8 to 10, and in 
sinaita from 7 to 8. The latter number is the most prevalent in both. 

On the hallux of H. turcicus the lamelle vary from 6 to 8, and in sinaita from 5 to 8; 
the most prevalent number in the former being 7, and in the latter 5. 

On the fourth toe in H. turcicus the lamelle vary from 9 to 11, and in sinaita from 
8 to 11. In both 10 is the most prevalent number. 

In six males of H. turcicus from Egypt, the preanal pores range from 6 to 8, the 
numbers being 4, 6, 6,7, 7,8; but in 14 examples of var. sinaita from the Eastern 
Sudan they vary from 2 to 5, only one has 2, two have 5, and the remainder have 4 ; 
whereas in one from Western Somaliland there are 6 preanal pores. 

In view of how the supposed characters of H. sinaitus have broken down with the 
investigation of additional material, it is not entitled to more than varietal rank, based 
chiefly on the differences observable in the lamellz, and more or less in the formation 
of the nostril. 

It is found in the Sinaitic Peninsula, Aden and its neighbourhood, Western Somali- 
land, and the Eastern Sudan to Kosseir (Alunzinger). 

The native name for this species is simply ep or bors. 


86 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


TARENTOLA. 
Tarentola, Gray, Ann. Phil. (2) 1825, p. 199. 


Digits free, dilated, their under surfaces with undivided transverse lamelle; only 
the third and fourth digits with claws. Pupil vertical. Neither femoral nor przanal 


pores. 


TARENTOLA MAuRITANICA!, Linn. (Plate VIII. figs. 1 & 2.) 


Lacerta mauritanica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 361. 

Gecko muricatus, Laur. Syst. Rept. 1768, p. 44. 

Stellio mauritanicus, Meyer, Syn. Rept. 1795, p. 31. 

Gecko fascicularis, Daud. Rept. iv. 1803, p. 144; Licht. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1823, p. 103. 

Gecko stellio, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 43. 

Tarentola stellio, Gray, Aun. Phil. (2) x. 1825, p. 199. 

Gecko mauritanica, Risso, Hist. Nat. Europ. Mér. iii. 1826, p. 87. 

Platydactylus fascicularis, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 142; Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. Kingd. ix. 
1831, p. 48. 

Platydactylus muralis, D. & B. iii. 1836, p.319; Guichenot, Explor. Sc. Alg., Phys. Zool. v. 1850, 
p-4; Steindachner, Unger & Kotschy, Cypern, 1865, p. 572; Gasco, Viagg. Hgitto, pt. 11. 
1876, p. 110. 

Gecko (Platydactylus) fascicularis, Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 2, vi. 1836, p. 309. 

Ascalabotes mauritanicus, Bonap. Faun. Ital. 1832-41, plate; Amph. Europ. 1839, p. 28; Bosca, 
An. Hist, Nat. Madrid, vi. 1877, p. 47. 

Platydactyla (Tarentola) fascicularis, Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. King. ix. p. 48. 

Ascalabotes fascicularis, Fitz. N. Class. Rept. 1826, p. 47; Syn. Rept. 1848, p. 102. 

Tarentola mauritanica, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 164; Tristram, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, 
p. 476; Boettger, Abh. Senck. natur. Ges. ix. 1873-75, p. 186; Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. 
xii. 1881, p. 880; Kobelt, Reiseerinnerung. Alg. und Tunis, 1885, p. 464; Peters, Mon. Berl. 
Ak. 1880, p. 306; Boulenger, Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 196; op. cit. 1. 1887, p.489; Trans. 
Zool. Soe. xiii. 1891, p. 115, pl. xiii. fig. 3; Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) xu. 1893, p. 204; Werner, 
Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlii. 1892, p. 351; op. cit. xliv. 1894, p. 77 ; Anders. Herp. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 78, 99. 

Platydactylus facetanus, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 22; Schreiber, 
Herp. Europ. 1875, p. 490; Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, 1879, no. 3, p. 35 ; 
Zeitschr. ges. Naturw. (Giebel) (2) iv. 1879, p. 510. 

Platydactylus mauritanicus, Boettger, Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. ix. 1874, p.16; Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 
1880, p. 193; De Betta, Faun. Ital., Rett. ed Anfibi, 1874, p. 19; Tristram, West. Palest., 
Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 103. 

Tarentola facetana, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) xxxv. no. 2, 1887, p. 21. 


‘ T have figured a epecimen with a renewed tail, as if is the largest in my collection, and, but for this 
blemish, is highly characteristic. 


Pl. VILLI. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


Fig. 3, ¢, Suakin. 


TARENTOLA ANNULARIS. 


Fig. 1, ¢, Marsa Matru ; Fig.2, Houses, Cairo. 


TARENTOLA MAURITANICA. 


TARENTOLA MAURITANICA. 87 


1. Cairo. Dr. Walter Innes. 

7. Abukir, on the walls of old windmills. 

1. Mandara, east of Alexandria. Dr. Walter Innes. 
2. Ramleh, east of Alexandria. 

1. El Khreit, to the west of Lake Mareotis. 


12. Marsa Matru, 150 miles to the west of Alexandria. 


Body short and stout, depressed. Head depressed; snout as long as or slightly 
exceeding the interval between the eye and the ear; a supraorbital bone; ear devoid 
of conical tubercles at its anterior margin; eight or nine upper and seven to ten lower 
labials, the last of the former minute; nostril generally defined by the rostral, first 
labial, and three nasals; rostral twice as broad as high; breadth of the mental about 
two-thirds of its length; chin-shield on each side in contact with the labials. Upper 
surface of the head from the occiput forwards is covered with polygonal, convex, more 
or less tubercular granules, and the temporal region with scattered large keeled 
tubercles; behind the ear and on the sides of the neck and body there are prominent 
tubercular rosettes, each consisting of a large keeled tubercle with some small ones 
around it, the tubercles on the middle of the back consisting of about three rows of 
large and strongly keeled sessile tubercles; all the dorsal tubercles are arranged in 
transverse series, while those on the upper surface of the limbs are irregularly 
distributed ; the interspaces between the tubercles are occupied by fine granular scales. 
Scales of the under surface flat, hexagonal, and slightly imbricate. ‘Tail with broad 
well-marked verticils, margined with strong, backwardly directed, large, sharply conical 
tubercles. ‘Thirteen lamelle on pollex and hallux, and twelve on the fourth digit. 

General colour yellowish brown or pale sandy yellow, occasionally marbled more or 
less with darker, or with short dark transverse dorsal bands, six in number, rare in 
Egyptian specimens, which, however, have generally indications of a dark line from the 
snout to behind the ear, with dark lines on the upper surface of the head, and the 
labials feebly dark-spotted. Tail generally barred brown and yellowish towards its 
end. Underparts whitish. 

Measurements of an adult: snout to vent 77 millim., tail 78. 

I have not observed this species to the south of Cairo, but it is quite possible that 
it may occur there. It is, however, essentially a species of the semi-desert and desert 
land along the sea-face of the delta; but it is not nearly so common as T. annularis 
is in the Nile valley proper. Its range extends eastwards to Arabia and westwards to 
Mogador, and may be said also to embrace the shores of the Mediterranean. 

It is generally found under stones, on old walls, and occasionally in inhabited houses. 
I caught it during the daytime on the stone walls of old windmills at Abukir. 


88 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


TARENTOLA EPHIPPIATA, O’Shaughn. (Fig. 5.) 
Tarentola ephippiata, O’Shaughn. Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) xvi. 1875, p. 263; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M.i. 
1885, pp. 198,414; Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) xii. 1893, p. 204; op. cit. (6) xvi. 1895, p. 166; Proc. 
Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 218; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvil.) 1897, p. 277. 


1. Durrur, north of Suakin. 


Body short and stout, depressed; head depressed ; snout rather broad, of variable 
length, in some (W. Africa) equalling the distance between the eye and the ear, and 
in others (E. Africa) exceeding it. A supraorbital bone. No denticulation in front of 
the ear. Nine or ten upper, and eight lower labials. Nostril formed by the rostral, 


Fig. 5. 


Tarentola ephippiata, O’Shaughn. 


first labial, and two nasals. Rostral nearly twice as broad as high (W. Africa) or 
twice as broad as high (E. Africa); mental twice as long as broad at its middle, poste- 
tiorly pointed, with three chin-shields on each side, the outer one generally separated 
from the labials by a row of small shields, the innermost ones in contact, irregular in 
some. Head covered with large, juxtaposed, polygonal granules, very uniform in size, 


TARENTOLA ANNULARIS. 89 


three or four times as large as the body-granules, the largest on the snout, supraorbital 
and temporal regions, but on the latter area small granules are intermixed. The 
tubercles on the body generally and on the limbs are flat, oval, usually smooth, or 
occasionally feebly keeled. Ventral scales moderate, hexagonal, and imbricate. 'The 
anterior portion of the tail with rows of not very large tubercles. 12 or 13 lamellae on 
the first digit and 14 or 15 on the fourth digit. 

Uniform pale reddish or greyish brown, with a dark narrow band passing through 
the eye, along the neck to near the shoulder, the two streaks meeting or not meeting 
on the neck; the head with a few large dusky spots, and the body and tail with 
obscure dark transverse markings. Underparts white. 

The following are the measurements of an adult West-African specimen given by 
Mr. Boulenger :—Snout to vent 63 millim., tail 59 millim. 

The chin-shields of the specimen from Durrur are arranged irregularly. On one 
side there are two large shields external to the mental, the one lying in front of the 
other, the first being in contact with the first and part of the second labial, and the 
second solely with the second labial. On the other side the two chin-shields are 
arranged as in the West-African specimens. 

This species was recorded for the first time from East Africa by Mr. Boulenger in 
his second account of the reptiles collected by Dr. Donaldson Smith in his expedition 
to Western Somaliland and the Galla country. It was obtained at Shaikh Hussein, 
West Somaliland, 5000 feet above the sea. My specimen was captured at Durrur, on 
~ the shore of the Red Sea. 

It ranges across Africa from Senegambia (McCarthy Island) to Western Somaliland. 


TARENTOLA ANNULARIS, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. (Plate VIII. fig. 3.) 


Gecko annularis, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, Deser. Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. 71827, p. 130, pl. v. figs. 6 & 7. 

Gecko savignyi, Aud. Descr. Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. 7 1829, p. 164, Suppl. pl. i. fig. 1. 

Platydactylus egyptiacus, Cuv. Rég. An. nouv. éd. ii. 1829, p. 53; Dum. & Bibr. iii. 1833, p. 322; 
Riippell, Mus. Senck. in, 1845, p. 8300; Lefebvre, Voy. Abyss. vi. Zool. (1845-50), p. 195, 
pl. 1. fig. 1; Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. Kingd. ix. 1831, p. 48; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, 
p- 271; Gasco, Viagg. Egitto, pt. i. 1876, p. 110. 

Ascalabotes egyptiacus, Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 102. 

Gecko egyptiacus, Griffith’s An. Kingd. ix. 1831, p. 144. 

Tarentola egyptiaca, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 165; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) 
XXxv. no. 2, 1887, p. 24. 

Tarentola annularis, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 197; Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) xii. 1893, p. 204; 
Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 554; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 
1893, p. 836; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 99. 


1. A house, Cairo. Dr. Walter Innes. 
2. Pyramids of Gizeh. 


eo) 
fom) 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Mariette Bey’s house, Sakkara. 

Minia. Major R. H. Brown, R.E. 

Tel el Amarna. Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 
Luxor. 

Colossi of Memnon, Thebes. 

Rocks, banks of Nile, Assuan. 

Rocks, banks of Nile, above First Cataract. 

Wadi Halfa. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
Suakin. Colonel Sir Charles Holled Smith, C.B., K.C.M.G. 
Houses, Suakin. Henry Barnham, Esq., H.B.M. Consul, Suakin. 
Rocks of Dehilba, Suakin plain. 

Erkowit, near Suakin. 

Houses, Suakin. 

Durrur. 

Gizeh. Dr. J. C. Mitchell. 


fi! es 69 tS BO SS bt 


Body short and depressed; head large, depressed and swollen across the temporal 
region; snout equalling or slightly shorter than the interval between the eye and the 
ear. A supraorbital bone; ear crescentic, nearly equalling the diameter of the eye, 
and with a denticulation at its anterior margin of conical scales. ‘Ten or eleven upper 
and lower labials, the last upper labial usually small. Nostril generally defined by 
the rostral, first labial, and three nasals; rostral much broader than high, with a short 
median groove above; mental about twice as high as broad, widely separating the 
chin-shields, of which there are generally two or three on each of its sides in contact 
with the labials. Head, from the snout to the occiput, covered with rather large 
convex polygonal scales, among which rounded tubercles occur on the hinder part of 
the occiput and on the temporal region and cheeks. From the occiput backwards to 
the tail and the upper surface of the limbs covered with slightly convex rounded 
granules, with many intermixed large convex or rounded tubercles, those on the trunk 
being arranged in 8 to 10 longitudinal rows, the tubercles on the back being slightly 
less convex than those on the sides. Skin on the cheeks, neck, and sides of the body 
in folds. Scales of under surface flat, hexagonal, imbricate, smooth. Tail shorter 
than the body and head, in broad well-defined verticils, the posterior border of each 
defined by a transverse row of tubercles. Nineteen lamelle on the pollex, twenty-one 
on the hallux, and twenty-two on the fourth digit. 

Colour generally greyish brown, but very variable, depending on the surroundings 
of the lizard, being in some almost black, and in others nearly white. Five dark 
transverse bands across the back, sometimes almost resolved into pairs of spots; two 
pairs of round equidistant white spots over the shoulder, one behind the other; head 
occasionally with obscure dusky spots and a dark line through the eye to the sides of 
the neck, uniting with the first dark transverse band; labials dusky; under surface 
white or occasionally speckled with dusky on the throat and sides of the belly; tail 


TARENTOLA ANNULARIS. 91 


with dark markings like the trunk, but usually reduced to spots, and sometimes more 
or less margined with white. 

Snout to vent 130 millim., tail 78 millim. 

Generally found on rocks and ruins, but it also frequents houses. On the black 
rocks along the banks of the Nile, above the First Cataract, it is nearly black. Major 
R. H. Brown, R.E., sent me two specimens from Minia so white that I wrote and 
asked him if he could explain the pale colour, and he replied that they had been 
captured on a white-washed house—so much is the colour of these geckos influenced 
by their surroundings. 

It is very common throughout the Nile valley, but I have not observed it in the 
northern part of the delta. It occurs in Abyssinia and in some of the islands off that 
coast (Lefebvre and Boulenger), and has been recorded from Eritrea (Ghinda) (Boulenger) 
and from Sennaar (Peters), also from the Sinaitic Peninsula. 

Mr. Boulenger, in a synopsis of the genus, published in 18931, recognized in all 
nine species, two of which, 7. americana, Gray, and T. cubana, Gundl. & Peters, 
are from the New World (West-India Islands), the other four, besides the three 
here described, being from the Western and North-western portions of Africa. 

The Arabic name of this gecko is Seal wae (,.!) =(abu) bors aswad=the black bors. 
It is known to the Hadendowahs as the Dhan. 


1 Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6 ser.) xii. Sept. 1893, p, 204. 


N2 


92 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


AGAMIDZ. 


AGAMA. 
Agana, part., Daud. Hist. Rept. 11. 1802, p. 333. 


Head triangular or cordate; tympanum distinct. Body more or less depressed ; 
back sometimes feebly crested. Tail elongate, round or slightly compressed, irregularly 
or verticillately scaled. A gular pouch present or absent; a transverse gular fold and 
a pit before the shoulder. Preeanal pores generally present in the male and occasion- 
ally in the female, but sometimes absent in both sexes. 


Before describing the first species of this genus, it is necessary to arrive at an under- 
standing of its synonymy and of the variations to which it is subject. 

Agama mutabilis, Merrem, was founded on the lizard figured (figs. 3 & 4) on plate 5 
of the ‘ Description de I Egypte, and Merrem’s name was merely the Latin rendering 
of the French “ L’Agame variable ow Le Changeant,” the term under which it appeared 
in the plates of the foregoing work. The lizard represented on the plate in question 
has the fourth digit longer than all the others, so that there is no ground for the 
supposition that it could possibly have been a drawing made from an individual of the 
species afterwards described by Heyden as A. sinaita; moreover, Is. Geoffroy, in his 
description of ?Agame variable, clearly indicated the nature of its fingers, as he says, 
“Jes doigts vont en augmentant de longueur, a partir du premier jusqu’au quatriéme.” 
In A. sinaita, on the other hand, the fourth finger, so far from being the longest, is 
markedly shorter than the third. 

The lizard figured by Is. Geoffroy corresponds to the individual (fig. 3) represented 
on Plate IX. of this work; whereas A. sinaita, Heyden (Pl. X. fig. 1), differs from it, 
in its much longer limbs and in the proportions of its third and fourth digits to one 
another. 

Is. Geoffroy described the scales of his lizard as being for the most part very small, 
and those on the back so fine as to be hardly distinguishable without the aid of a hand- 
lens, or at least only by the greatest attention. He also says that, although the scales 
are disposed as in the ordinary species of the genus Agama, [ Agame variable, unlike 
them, has no spines scattered over different parts of the body and none around the 
ear-opening or on the sides of the neck. 

The only lizard in the British Museum which at all approaches Is. Geoffroy 
St.-Hilaire’s description of ?Agame variable is a lizard from Egypt, presented many 
years ago to that institution by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson. Dr. Gray regarded it as an 
example of ‘** The Variable Trapelus,” but placed along with it two other lizards from 
the same donor, which are undoubted examples of A. pallida, Reuss. Moreover, he 
regarded U’Agame variable as identical with A. ruderata, Olivier. 


AGAMA. 95 


Mr. Blanford pointed out, in 18761, that the last-mentioned species is the Persian 
form, distinct from what he designated as the Egyptian lizard, which he held would 
stand as Trapelus mutadilis, Merr, From Mr. Blanford’s allusion to certain characters 
of the lizard he had in view, it would appear to have been A. pallida, and not 
UAgame variable of Is. Geoffroy, which seems to be identical with A. inermis, Reuss. 

Mr. Boulenger, in preparing the second edition of the British Museum ‘ Catalogue 
of Lizards,’ had to deal with Sir J. G. Wilkinson’s specimen; and not being able to 
identify it with any known species, he described it as new under the name A. datastit. 
I captured in the neighbourhood of the Pyramids of Gizeh a lizard distinctly referable 
to A. latasti?. Mr. Boulenger describes the scales ‘‘as equal, rhomboidal, imbricate, 
smooth or indistinctly keeled . . . . the size of which scarcely exceeds that of the 
ventrals,” and the back of the head as having no spinose scales. The upper edge of 
the ear, however, he mentions has a fringe of 3 or 4 pointed scales. In the Gizeh 
specimen (PI. IX. fig. 3) corresponding to A. latastii the fringe on one side of the 
head has the scales so small and so little pointed that they are only just visible to 
the naked eye. 

These two specimens appear to me to correspond to A. mutabilis, Merr. ‘They are 
both females, and I believe them to be inseparable from the lizard described by Reuss 
as A. inermis. I have arrived at this conclusion after having compared them with a 
male lizard captured at Gizeh, and submitted to Prof. Boettger for comparison with 
the types of A. inermis preserved at Frankfort. He pronounced it to be specifically 
identical with A. inermis, but since then I have been enabled, thanks to his courtesy, 
to compare them myself, and I have come to the same conclusion. The individual 
compared with the type at Frankfort is represented by fig. 1, Pl. IX. I have also 
examined the types (two males) of A. gularis, Reuss, both of which are specifically 
identical with A. énermis, an opinion which is also held by Professor Boettger. 

In the two females (=A. latastii) to which I am specially referring the body-scales 
are small, rhomboidal, imbricate, nearly equal, smooth or feebly keeled, with a few 
faintly enlarged, obtusely keeled scales scattered sparsely among the small scales; 
whereas in the types of A. énermis, corresponding to fig. 1, Pl. [X., the scales are more 
unequal and more sharply carinate. ‘The inequality is such that some of the scales are 
distinctly larger than the others, strongly keeled, and irregularly scattered among them. 
These larger scales, however, are foreshadowed by the faintly enlarged scales observed 
here and there, but very feebly developed, in the two females of A. /atastii. Beyond 
these trivial differences there is not a single character by which they can be separated. 
The finest form of lepidosis is that illustrated by the two females which I consider 
can be reasonably regarded as examples of A. mutabilis, Merrem. The next modi- 
fication is met with in those lizards from Gizeh which come under Reuss’s description 
of A. inermis. There are, however, further instances of variation, in which the scales 


1 Hast. Persia, Geol. & Zool. ii. 1876, p. 316; Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xlv. pt. ii. 1876, p. 23. 


94 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


become more strongly carinated and irregular. The most extreme example in this 
direction is found in specimens from the coast-line of the delta of the Nile. When I 
first met with it I provisionally regarded it as worthy of recognition as a distinct 
variety. Since then, however, my materials have increased, and in reviewing them, 
along with the specimens in the British Museum, I find that, although these deltaic 
specimens are at first sight strikingly dissimilar to typical A. mutabilis, the extremes 
are bridged over by intermediate variations. 

Lataste collected in the Algerian Sahara, at Hadjira, examples of this species, in 
which the dorsal scales are very markedly larger than those on the sides, so much so 
that they form a dorsal area by themselves; but he also found at Tibremt, in the same 
region, others in which the dorsal scales are not sharply marked off from those on the 
sides, but some are larger than others, strongly keeled and mucronate. All of them 
approach the specimens from the littoral area of the Nile delta, and probably 
correspond to the lizards from the Algerian Sahara referred by Strauch! to A. ruderata, 
Olivier, and, possibly, are the equivalents of the lizards from the same region recently 
described by Dr. Franz Werner? as 4. aspera. Specimens presenting the same 
characters as M. Lataste’s Tibremt examples of the species were obtained by me 
some years ago at Biskra®, They had been collected between that health-resort and 
Tugeurt. From Duirat, on the Eastern Tunisian confines of the Algerian Sahara, 
my Arab collector brought back almost similar specimens. The lizards from Benghazi, 
in Cyrenaica, and those from the oasis of Kufra, in the Sahara, collected by Gerard 
Rohlfs and Dr. A. Stecker, and recorded by Peters+ under the name of A. ruderata, 
are doubtless examples of this species. 


AGAMA MUTABILIS, Merrem. (Plate IX.) 


L’ Agame variable ou Le Changeant, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. Descr. de VBgypte, Hist. Nat. i.? 1827, 
pp. 127-129, pl. 5. figs. 3 & 4; Cuv. Reg. An. 1817, p. 35. 

Agama mutabilis, Merrem, Tent. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 50; Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. 1. c. pp. 127-129; 
part., D. & B. iv. 1837, p. 505; part., Riipp. Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 302; ? Gasco, Viagg. 
Egitto, pt. 2, 1876, p. 106; Lataste, Le Natur. 1880, p. 325; Anderson, Herp. Arabia & 
Egypt, 1896, p. 100. 

? Agama deserti, Licht. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1828, p. 101. 

Trapelus egyptius, Cuv. Reg. An. nouv. éd. 11. 1829, p. 37. 

Agama inermis, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 33; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 344; Trans. 


1 Op. cit. p. 29. 

2 Zool. Anz. no. 429 (1893), p. 359. Daudin had already used this term for a South-African Agama. 
1 observe that Professor Boettger refers one of Dr. Werner's Algerian Sahara specimens to A. inermis 
(Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 49). 

* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 11. 4 Monatsb. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 307. 


Reptiles of Egypt. PILIX, 


SEEM Nes 
ESS 


x 


LN es 
et RN Ps 


ES rt 


J.Greendel. et ith. 


AGAMA MUTABILIS. 
Figs. 1 & 2 3, Gizeh; Fig. 3 9, Gizeh; Fig. 4 ¢, Ramleh; Fig. 5 ¢, Fayum. 


7 a 4) 7 


_ Saget 


AGAMA MUTABILIS. 95 


Zool. Soc. xi. 1891, p. 117; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 49; Werner, Verh. 
zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 1894, xlii. p. 78. 

Agama gularis, Reuss, Mus. Senck. 1. 1834, p. 37. 

Eremioplanis egyptiaca, Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 82. 

Trapelus savignyi (non Dum. & Bibr.), Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 258. 

Agama flavimaculata, part., Riipp.* Mus. Senck. ui. 1845, p. 302. 

Agama agilis (non Olivier), Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 28; Olivier, 
Mém. Soe. Zool. France, vu. 1894, p. 109. 

Agama ruderata (non Olivier), Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 29; 
Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; op. cit. 1880, p. 307; part., Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. 
Ges. 1879-80, p. 196. 

? Agama savignyi, Reich. Sitzb. Ges. nat. Fr. Berl. 1883, p. 149. 

Agama latastii, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. 1. 1885, p. 344. 

Agama aspera (non Daudin), Werner, Zool. Anz. no. 429, 1893, p. 359; Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. 
Wien, xliv. 1894, p. 78. 


19. Abukir. 
1g and1¢. Mandara. Dr. Walter Innes. 
4g. Ramleh. 


29g and1Q. Maryut district. 

1 g. Neighbourhood of Cairo. 

1g. Abu Roash. Mrs. Anderson. 

1g. Gizeh. The late V. Ball, Esq., C.B. 
ljuv. Gizeh. The late Miss R. M. Robertson. 
4g and3 2. Gizeh. 

12. The Fayum. 

Body moderately elongated, but depressed; head subcordiform; nostril on the 
canthus rostralis in the hinder part of the nasal, and directed upwards and backwards ; 
ear round, smaller than the eye-opening, with a feeble fringe of pointed scales along its 
upper border; the tibia and skull (occiput to snout) are nearly equal, sometimes longer 
and sometimes shorter than one another. Limbs variable ; the wrist may reach to any 
point between the eye and the nostril, and rarely beyond the snout; the tip of the 
fourth toe may reach to any point between the shoulder and the ear, or may extend as 
far forwards as the eye; tail depressed, and broad at the base, tapering gradually to a 
rather fine point and rounded; not unfrequently much longer than the body and head, 
but much shorter in some than in others. Scales on the upper surface of the head 
smooth or slightly keeled, more or less convex on the frontal region, and generally 
keeled on the temporal area; a minute spine or two on the post-temporal region in 
the finely-scaled forms, but occasionally absent, most marked in those with a coarse 
lepidosis. Body covered with small, equal, rhomboidal, smooth, indistinctly or distinctly 
keeled scales, somewhat larger than the ventrals, with a few slightly, if at all, larger 


* Riippell, in Neue Wirbelth. p. 14, seemed doubtful whether his A. flavimaculata was distinct from the 
A, ruderata (=A. pallida) of the Descr. de Egypte, but they are two very different species. 


96 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


scales scattered among them; or the body-scales generally much larger than the 
ventrals, unequal, strongly keeled and mucronate, and sometimes well marked off from 
the scales on the sides. Ventrals smooth or indistinctly keeled. Limbs covered with 
equal, keeled, imbricate scales. Caudal scales keeled. 

The males have a rudimentary gular pouch; preeanal pores in one or two lines, 
sometimes present in females. 

General colour faint pinkish grey, sandy or greyish brown above, some of the larger 
scales brighter coloured than the others, especially in the case of specimens with 
a coarse lepidosis ; light brown, quadrangular dorsal spots or cross-bars, arranged as in 
allied species, may be present or absent; throats of the males in the breeding-season 
suffused with brilliant blue, with darker longitudinal lines, sometimes white and spotted ; 
the females also have their throats occasionally with faint black lines; under surface of 
body usually white, but in some the ventral area is covered with blue reticulations, and 
the sides are rich violet; the prehumeral pit in both sexes deep blue, but frequently 
there are four short longitudinal brownish nuchal lines, and, in some, cross brownish 
bars on the top of the head between the eyes. The specimens from the sea-face of 
the delta are generally greyish speckled with blackish, the enlarged scales being pale- 
coloured and the tail banded. 


Measurements of an adult male and female. 


¢. Snout to vent 83 mm., taill15 mm. Ramleh. 


© 0 BB) » 78 32 ” 82 39 Fayum. 


It lives exclusively on insects. In gravid females I have generally found 9 or 10 eggs. 

Is. Geoffroy describes this species as one of the most interesting zoological discoveries 
made by the French Expedition to Egypt, in the end of the last century. He says it 
is subject to such sudden and rapid changes of colour that had it been known to the 
ancients it would have completely thrown the chameleon into the shade. I kept one 
of these lizards alive for some time ; but, while it was under my observation, the only 
change of colour it manifested was a slight intensification of the brighter hues on its 
sides, after it had lain in the sun for some time. There was no real change, but only 
a brightening up of the colours already present. My observations, however, were 
made in the winter months, when the lizard was very sluggish. 

It is distributed over North Africa from Egypt to Algeria and the Algerian Sahara, 
and ranges a considerable distance up the Nile valley. 

The Arabs apparently do not distinguish between it and A. pallida and A. sinaita, 
as they all go under the name of Gus! isos = hadi el jibdl, or judge of the desert— 
possibly in allusion to the way in which these lizards are frequently seen with raised 
heads as if they were surveying their surroundings. 


The variations in the length of the skull and in its proportions to the tibia are very 
considerable. 


AGAMA MUTABILIS. 97 


I have tabulated 41 specimens. In 17 of them the skull is longer than the tibia, in 
12 it is shorter, and in the remaining 12 the two are equal. When the lizards from 
Algeria and Tunisia are separated out from the Egyptian specimens, it is found that 
9 out of the 17 Algerian and Tunisian lizards have the skull shorter than the tibia, 
4 have it longer, while in 4 these two parts are equal. On the other hand, in 
the Egyptian lizards, of which there are 24, 3 only have the skull shorter than 
the tibia, 13 have it longer, while in 8 it is equal. The Egyptian lizards have 
thus, as a rule, longer skulls than the members of the species in the extreme west of 
its distribution ; but at the same time individuals from exactly the same localities may 
have their tibie longer than the skulls and the reverse. Moreover, a young lizard 
from Mandara has its skull exceeding the length of its tibia to a greater extent than 
occurs in any adult; but, on the other hand, a young specimen from Gizeh, only a little 
older than the foregoing example, has the skull and tibia practically equal. 

The following is a synopsis of these measurements :— 


Skull longer Skull shorter | Skull and tibia 
than tibia. than tibia. equal. 
IBRD 6 05000000 00000000 50 13 3 8 = 24 
Algeria and Tunisia ........ 4 9 4 = 17 


The length of the hind foot of this lizard is also subject to considerable individual 
variations. A male from the Algerian Sahara, with the head and body 80 millim. long, 
has a foot 22 millim., whereas another male from the same region, 12 millim. shorter, 
has its hind foot almost the same length as the former, viz. 21:7 millim. Similar 
variations occur in Egypt: e. g., a male with its head and body 73 millim. has its foot 
25:3 millim. in length, yonsiderably in excess of the foot of a specimen measuring 
83 millim., in which it is only 23 millim. The fore limb also presents similar variations, 
which are brought out in the Table. ‘The tail also varies greatly in its length 
irrespective of locality and sex; but at the same time the tails of the western lizards 
tend to be longer than those of the eastern, and more especially longer than the tails 
of the lizards with the finer lepidosis—e. g., two males, one from Duirat and the other 
from Egypt, measuring respectively 63 millim. from snout to vent, have tails 115 
and 90 millim. long; that is, the eastern tail is 25 millim. shorter than the other, 
although there is no difference between the length of the bodies of the lizards ; and yet 
I cannot separate them specifically. 

In dealing with this North-African species I have taken the opportunity to compare 
some of the Tunisian and Algerian Sahara specimens and others from the littoral of 
the Nile delta with undoubted examples of A. ruderata, Olivier. I find it impossible 

O 


98 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


to refer any of the foregoing lizards to A. ruderata, which differs from them in its 
convex snout, greater internasal breadth, and in the nostril being placed decidedly 
below the canthus rostralis, and thus more or less lateral in position. Its head-shields 
also are markedly different from those of the North-African lizards, as there are generally 
one or more ridges to each scale. 

Dr. Peters was of the opinion that A. ruderata was a form nearly allied to A. agilis, 
Olivier ; but he had doubtless before him not the true A. ruderata, but A. mutadilis, 
Merrem, because when he expressed this opinion he had only recently identified 
Messrs. Rohlfs and Stecker’s specimen from Cyrenaica as A. ruderata. I have not 
met with a single lizard, either from Egypt or to the west of it, that can be referred to 
A. ruderata. The lizard mentioned under this name by Audouin is Agama pallida, 
Reuss. The forms of A. mutabilis with a coarser lepidosis present a certain resemblance 
to lizards of the A. agilis group, and this has doubtless led to their having been 
occasionally referred to that species. 


Measurements &c. of A. mutabilis, Merr. (in millim.). 


Snout Length | Width | Length | Length TeRaal 
Sex. to Tail. of of of fore | of hind} Tibia. | “-,94, | Pores. Loeality. 
vent. head. | head. limb. | limb. 4 

@....| 93 | 125 | 223] 222] 45 | 61 | 22 | 231 | 4 | Dnirat. | 

Q....| 87 | 185 | 19:6 | 20-2] 44-4] 61 | 28 | 248) .. | Tunis, 

a. 86 | 108 | 20:8] 20 | 463] 60 | 21:5) 245) .. | Duirat. 

@....| 85 | 114 | 185 | 185| 403] 55 | 18 | 22 .. | Tunis. 

Saccol G2 | 1 | 2 |) 208) 8 | GO || oH | 2 .. |Ramleb. 

On. 83 109 18-1 | 18 43:8 | 61 20 25 7 | Duirat. 

g....| 80 | 122} 19 | 185| 41 | 58 | 202] 22 | © | Biskra to Tuggurt. 

Siscdl WO || HS | oo | 20 | a | ae | io | 7 |Ramleh _,, 
3 2 

g....| 79 | 105 | 205] 19 | 44 | 59 | 19:3] 23 5 oe) Pl Dea figs 4s 

| 

g....| 78 | 124 | 19 | 198| 41 | 578| 20 | 245) 35 | Tibremt. 

OF 78 GE) || alge |) 240) 40 55 18 21:7 9 | Algerian Sahara. 
4 

lg 78 | 99 | 19:8 | 19-4] 44 | 585| 20 | 245] 35 |Eaypt. 
4 

19 7g | g2| 186/20 | 45 | 59 | 186] 94 | .. |Fayum. PLIX.fie.5. | 

Q 77 18-6 | 20 40°5 | 55 17-6 | 22°8 Maryut district, Alexandria. 

g....| 76 | 120 | 175] 17-5] 40 | 575] 20 | 228| 10 | Tunis. 


AGAMA MUTABILIS. 99 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Snout ; Length Width Length Length af Hind : 

Sey oral cman ince ee” |ceees| Bae ease] Pr sally 
@Gecos| CH | Wey |) ask || aksHsy |) Els) | ISHS) |) alee |), Beery a Hadjira, Algerian Sahara. 
®...4 7 | GD | Tr | WAS | Ss) GO || Wy | ee .. | Egypt. 
é....| 74 | 99 | 175] 18 | 40 | 55 | 19 | 22 | S | Mandara, Alexandria. 
Soooal 7 | 8B | 1 | 1 | SH | @ | 1 | ose ii Desert, Gizeh. 
Gooes| TW | 8 | TO | WSO) 2x7 | Ges) ID | 33 0 ‘. »  DLIDK fg, 2, 
rs) 71 95 19 18:4 | 39 56 19 23 10 | Ramleh, Alexandria. 
3 70 | 90 | 18 | 19 | 39 | 54 | 18 | 232) 2 | Desert, Gizeh. Pl. IX. fig. J. 

‘ Compared with type of A. inermis. 
3 CO LO 5 Sao el) 7-50| 21-8) |) 9) | Duirat: 
10 

Gesis| GB | OSB | 1S | Wen ss | we | me | oiey = Biskra to Tuggurt. 
@ oe Gy || © | 18 | 28 | Sf | Bl | ae | om = Maryut district, Alexandria. 
Exe Gr || G2 || ies | 18 | S28 | 23 | 16 | so u p " op 
Ses 67 89 | 16-2] 15 33 48:8 | 17 20:5 | 9 | Algerian Sahara. 
OD 64 | 90 | 16 | 162] 35:5] 46-7] 16 | 21 .. | Tunis. 
Gsee| B | US | 166) 18) Br | GOS) ns |e) |) 2 lomo, 
go. 63 | 90 | 165 |.16:8 |] 35 45 15 iy a Egypt. 
®s. 63 | 74 | 166| 16:4] 33:5 | 45:5 | 145] 187] .- | Desert, Gizeh. Pl. IX. fig. 3. 
Gov 61 95 15 145 | 32:2 | 44:8] 15 19:2 = Biskra to Tuggurt. 
One 60 | 81 | 16 | 15 | 35 | 465] 15 | 20 .. | Abukir. 
® s¢ 60 7 | 16 16 32 46 15 20 9 | Desert, Gizeh. 
3 58 76 15 162) || 833 44-3 | 14 19 : Outskirts of Cairo. 
g 57 | 72 | 145] 15 | 345] 46 | 14:5 | 19:2 ck | Desert, Gizeh. 
2 54 | 71 | 145] 141] 806] 43 | 14:5 | 18-2 ee 
$ 52 | 69 | 15 | 142) 33 | 41-5] 135] 18 13 si ves 
Sooonl| 0) 80 BP |) 1183 27-4 | 38 i} |) LGAs) im Bou-Saada. 
Juv...| 47 45 12 13 yee Zk Tales} |) GS} ‘ Desert, Gizeh. 
© 5560 441 51 miles} |) al 21 28 8:3 | 16 .. | Mandara, Alexandria. 


02 


100 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


AGAMA PALLIDA, Reuss. (Fig. 6.) 


? Agama deserti, Licht. Verz. Doubl. Zool. Mus. Berl. 1823, p. 101. 

Agama ruderata (non Olivier), Audouin, Deser. de ’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. (1828?) p. 169; Suppl. 
Rept. pl. i. figs. 6.1 to 6.3; Hart, Fauna & Flora of Sinai &. 1891, p. 210. 

Agama pallida, Reuss, Mus. Senck. Bd. i. 1834, p. 88, Taf. iii. fig. 8; Boulenger, Cat. Lizards 
Brit. Mus. 2nd ed. vol. i. 1885, p. 8348; Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. ed Anfibi Mar Rosso, 1886, 
p- 17; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 50; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Zool. Torino, 
ix. 1894, no. 166, p. 6; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 99. 

Ayama loricata, Reuss, |. c. p. 40. 

Agama nigrofasciata, Reuss, |. c. p. 42. 

Agama leucostygma, Reuss, l.c. p. 44; part., Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 18938, p. 49. 

Agama mutabilis, Ruppell (part.), Mus. Senck. Bd. ii. 1845, p. 302; Dum. & Bibr. (part.) Erpét. 
Gén. t. iv. 1837, p. 505; part., A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 103; Blanford, 
Eastern Persia, vol. ii. Zool. & Geol. 1876, p. 316; part., Lortet, Arch. Mus. Lyon, 1883, iii. 
p. 187. 

Trapelus egyptius, Duvernoy, Cuv. Régn. An. (1836-46), Reptiles, p. 54, pl. 14. fig. 2. 

Trapelus ruderatus (non Oliv.), Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 258. 


1 @. Tor, Sinaitic Peninsula. 

8 g and5 @. East of Suez to Ain Musa. 

2 Gg and3 2. Beltim, between Damietta and Rosetta. Dr. J. G. Rogers. 
2 g and 2 9. Plain of Kafr Gamus, Matariyeh. 

1 g andl @. Abbasiyeh, near Cairo. Brigadier-General H. M. L. Rundle, C.M.G., D.S.O. 
2 g and3 9. Neighbourhood of Cairo. 

2 g andl 2. Neighbourhood of Cairo. Dr. Walter Innes. 

1 g andl 2. Mokattam Hills. Dr. Walter Innes. 

26. Kafr Amar, below Wasta. 

2d and2 9. Telel Amarna. Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 
2¢6and2 9. Tel el Amarna. 

1 2. Lower Egypt. A. R. Birdwood, Esq. 


Body rather short and depressed; head convex and cordate, its temporal breadth 
about equalling its length ; the nostril on the canthus rostralis in the hinder part of 
the nasal; ear smaller than the eye-opening, witha feeble fringe of two or more 
pointed scales along its upper border. ‘Tibia variable, generally shorter than the skull, 
rarely equal to it, and exceptionally longer than the skull. The fore limb, when laid 
forwards, has the wrist generally reaching the snout, occasionally in advance of it, 
sometimes only reaching the nostril, and more rarely to between the eye and the 
nostril; the tip of the fourth toe, when the hind limb is extended forwards, usually 
reaches the ear, or midway between the ear and the eye, and in a few cases even to the 
eye, and is rarely so short as only to reach the shoulder. Tail depressed at the base 


AGAMA PALLIDA. 101 


and broad, rapidly contracting and nearly round, longer than the body and head, shorter 
in some than in others. Upper surface of the head covered with moderately large 
polygonal scales, flat and nearly smooth, sometimes slightly rugose; some enlarged 
scales occasionally with feeble keels on the temporal and on the supratemporal regions ; 
usually two spines on the post-aural region. Body covered with flat, irregular, slightly 
imbricate or juxtaposed, smooth or keeled, small scales, with larger keeled scales 
scattered among them, and generally more or less mucronate; the scales decrease in 
size towards the sides, where they equal the size of the ventrals. Ventrals smooth and 
not much smaller than the largest of the ordinary scales on the middle of the back. 
Upper surface of the limbs covered with smooth, or more or less keeled, imbricate 
scales, with enlarged keeled scales among them. Caudal scales nearly smooth or feebly 
keeled; generally enlarged keeled scales present on the base of the tail. 

No gular pouch. Males with preanal pores arranged in from 2 to 4 series, some- 
times as many as 36 pores, and rarely present, in a single line, in females. 

The general colour of this species varies considerably, as it is occasionally deep 
bluish grey, pale yellowish, or pale brownish. ‘The body is occasionally marked by 


Se Bhd oe 
: ater CF. pe aec te as 
“f- 


Agama pallida, Reuss. 


transverse dark-coloured bars—one between the eyes superiorly, one across the neck, 
one on the shoulder, another across the middle of the body, a fifth across the loins, 
and about 14 similar bars on the tail; a large white spot generally occurs in the mesial 
line of each dorsal bar; the bar between the eyes, the central bar of the back, and also 
the shoulder-bar are frequently absent, and likewise the white spots; the upper surface 
of the limbs is also more or less barred with dark brown or nearly black. 


Measurements of an adult male and female. 
¢. Snout to vent 75 mm., tail 89 mm. 


2 S, a) 3) 81 BD) 3) 89 


This lizard is very common in the desert, either on its margin or on the extensive 


102 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


plains that slope down to the Nile and on which the lines of drainage are marked by 
the presence of tufts of a stunted vegetation. It is also found penetrating into the 
desert along the deep waterworn wadis, which also support a variety of plants. The 
vegetation attracts the insects on which the lizards subsist. It is prevalent also in the 
semi-desert tracts at the mouth of the delta, and is found not far from the sea in 
suitable localities. 

It is remarkably active, and when pursued runs with great rapidity, seeking for 
shelter under stones and among the tufts of vegetation. 

‘There are generally five eggs in each gravid oviduct. 

It occurs in various parts of the Sinaitic Peninsula, and Count Peracca has recorded 
it from Northern Syria (Damascus) associated with Agama ruderata, Oliv. It is found 
on both sides of the Nile valley, but none of my specimens come further from the 
south than the plain of ‘Tel el Amarna. 

I have examined the types of A. pallida, A. leucostigma, A. nigrofasciata, and 
A. loricata, and I cannot detect that they are in any way specifically distinct. The 
type of A. loricata, Reuss, was from Upper Egypt. It has been identified by some 
herpetologists with A. ruderata, Oliv., but, as already said, no lizard with the characters 
of the latter species has ever been found in Egypt, so far as I am aware. 

The head of this species is broad and high between the eyes, the muzzle is short, 
and thus in its general characters the head is very similar to that of A. mutadilis. 
The nostril is situated on the canthus rostralis, and is thus more internal than the 
nostril of A. ruderata. I have failed to detect any essential difference between the 
nostrils of this species and that of A. mutabilis. I make this statement because 
I attempted to separate out the two forms by their nostrils irrespective of other 
characters and failed to do so, as they all fell under the one category of the “ nostril 
on the canthus rostralis.” 

The head-scales are smooth in the sense that they are not prominently rugose as in 
A. ruderata; but, in the specimens enumerated, they present more or less rugosity, 
and an illustration of this is found in the female from the Mokattam Hills and 
another from Tel el Amarna. In the former some of the head-scales are ridged and 
others covered sparsely with little tubercular eminences, while in the latter specimen 
they are irregularly covered with ridges. A similar condition is also present on the 
head-scales of a male from the plain of Kafr Gamus, where this lizard is not at all 
uncommon. On the area between the eye and the ear there is an enlarged group of 
scales, some of the scales being larger than the others and more or less ridged and 
keeled. Along the upper margin of the ear-orifice there are generally three downwardly 
pointed scales, and on the back of the head and on the nape some scattered spinose 
scales, but not always present and of no great prominence. The depressed body is 
covered uniformly with small scales of nearly equal size, rather feebly imbricate and 
tending to juxtaposition, a character which separates this species from A. mutabilis. 


AGAMA PALLIDA. 103 


The uniformity or nearly so of these small scales that form the groundwork, so to 
speak, of the lepidosis is one of the features by which 4. pallida can be distinguished 
from A. mutabilis, in which the scales of the general lepidosis are much more irregular 
in size. These small scales are generally devoid of keels, but they are occasionally 
keeled here and there. Variations in the lepidosis are sometimes observable in 
which it is not so uniform, but uniformity prevails compared to the diversity present 
in A. mutabilis. Scattered in a varying degree among this groundwork of small scales 
occur keeled enlarged scales, some larger than others. On the upper surface of the 
fore and hind limbs the scales are carinate and imbricate, with an intermixture of 
enlarged scales. The ventrals are smooth, pointed or divided at their tips, and are 
about the same size as the scales of the sides of the body. 

The tail is covered above with keeled pointed scales, slightly larger than the largest 
of the ordinary scales on the middle of the back. The limbs are well developed and 


the fingers and toes are only moderately long, and the claws of the fore feet are well 


8; 
developed and larger than in the hind foot. 

Notwithstanding the differences I have attempted to indicate as existing between 
A, pallida and A. mutabilis, they are so closely allied that Iam not confident they may 
not ultimately be united by the study of larger materials. 

I subjoin a table (p. 104) giving the details of measurements &c. of the specimens 
that have come under my observation. 

Out of the 44 specimens enumerated, 33 have the skull longer than the tibia ; but in 
17 of them the excess in each case is less than a millim., and in 15 less than 2 millim., 
and only in two more than 2 millim. Six of the 44 have the tibia and skull equal, 
while in five the tibia is longer than the skull, but only to the extent of 1 millim. 
or so. 

A single line of praeanal pores is rare, and when the number of lines exceeds two the 
transverse arrangement of the pores is not very regular, and they may not be contiuuous 
from side to side. 

There are variations in the colour that explain the origin of the terms /eucostiyma 
and nigrofasciata applied by Reuss to examples of this species from Upper Egypt and 
Nubia. For example, in a specimen from the east of Suez there is a dark bar on the 
upper surface of the head, between the eyes, one across the occipital region, another 
on the neck, a fourth on the body behind the shoulders, a fifth across the middle of 
the back, a sixth on the loins, and 14 black bars on the tail. A white spot occurs in 
the centres of the three essentially dorsal bands. When these spots are not very 
prominent we have nigrofusciata, and when they are very distinct /eucostigma. 

In 1823, Lichtenstein! gave a short diagnosis of an Agama from Egypt, which he 
called 4. deserti; but his description is so imperfect that it is impossible to reconcile it 


1 Verz. Doubl. Ber. Mus. 1823, p. 101. 


104 


Sex. 


10 


GSA 0 A 0 DW WO 


ay 


40 40 10 G&G 


69 


69 


68 
68 
68 


67 


66 


66 
66 
65 


Tail. 


93 


91 


83 
74 
81 


97 


98 


83 
75 
89 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. of A. pallida, Reuss (in millim.). 


Length Ryde aa 
f 0: ~ j 
end head. oe ee 
20 | 19 415 
19:3 | 19 42-5 
17 18:8 37 
18 19 40 
175 | 19 36 
17-5 | 18 38:5 
18 18°5 39 
18:8 | 18:8 36:4 
17-5 | 18 36 
17:4 | 18 41 
18 18 40 
18 18 39 
18 18°6 37 
17 18°5 37°5 
17 17:3 38 
17-4 | 17:3 38 
16:5 | 17 36 
16 16:5 36:3 
17 18:5 37 
16 17 35 
16 16°6 37 
isHy/ |) ley 36:5 


Length of 
hind limb 
posteriorly. 


48°5 


49 


49 
50 
54 


51 


48:5 


52 


50 
49 


50°5 


Length 

Tibia, | of hind 
foot. 

18 20 
185 | 21 
17 20:5 
16°5 | 20 
16:6 | 19 
17 20 
17:4 | 19:2 
16 20:4 
16°5 | 17:6 
17:2 | 20:8 
17 19°8 
17:5 | 19:8 
Ny 20 
17 20°4 
17 20:2 
16 19°5 
16 20 
15:5 | 20 
17 19:8 
17 20 
15:5 | 19:9 
15:9) |) 9 


als; 


RIElS © 


tle Blmle Elale : 


Leleo ol lala : 


= ie 
ic os 


be. 
wo. 


4 


alo fal 


Pores, 


Locality. 


Tel el Amarna. 

Beltim. 

Mokattam Hills, Cairo. 

Tor, Sinaitic Peninsula. 

Kafr Amar, below Wasta. 

Mokattam Hills, Cairo. 

Suburbs of Cairo. 

Beltim, between Rosetta 
and Damietta. 

Suburbs of Cairo. 

Ain Musa, near Suez. 

Tel el Amarna. 


Ain Musa, near Suez. 


Beltim, between Rosetta 
and Damietta. 


Plain of Kafr Gamus, He- 
liopolis. 


East of Suez Canal, Suez. 


Suburbs of Cairo. 


East of Suez Canal, Suez. 


Plain of Kafr Gamus, He- 
liopolis. 


Ain Musa, near Suez. 


East of Suez Canal, Suez. 


AGAMA PALLIDA. 105 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Snout Length | Width Tenet of Length of Length 
Sex. to Tail. of of | from head | bind limb] Tibia. | of hind | Pores. Locality. 
vent. head. | head. |o¢humerus |Posteriorly- foot. 
Oeoan| OE 61 16 17 34:3 45 148 | 18 .. | Abbasiyeh, Cairo. 
g....| 65 | 81 | 16 | 168] 34 47 | 154| 19 | 7) | Ain Musa, near Suez. 
& 
Saooall GS 88 16:5 | 17 33°8 46 155 | 19 14 | Kafr Amar, below Wasta. 
14 
2 
Goce GS | WA | 16 | wer|| BE 485 | 16 | 19 | 75 | East of Suez Canal, Suez. 
OF ox 65 72 15 16 32 43 144 | 185} .. | Tel el Amarna. 
@ ocadl G2 | GD |) Te 5G 34 43-7 | 148 | 17-5 i " 
Ore. 62 74 15 16 34 43 14 17°5 .. | Suburbs of Cairo. 
om 62 71 15 16 34 44 14:5 | 17 .. |Beltim, between Rosetta 
and Damietta. 
Oy 61 il 15:7 | 15:8 34 44 14:8 | 18 .. | Plain of Kafr Gamus, He- 
liopolis. 
uke 60 72 15 16°5 39 48:3 16 18 Le East of Suez Canal, Suez. 
OR 60 68 15°6 | 16:5 35'°7 45:5 15 18:5 .. | Plain of Kafr Gamus, He- 
12 liopolis. 
Ooo 60 75 15:3 | 16 34 45:5 14 18:5 | j5 | Tel el Amarna. 
OR 59 62 15:3 | 16:3 33'8 44 14:2 | 17 .. | Beltim, between Rosetta 
14 and Damietta. 
@ oo 58 78 15 15:5 33:5 46 15 18 ja | Tel el Amarna. 
© 
605 58 68 14:2 | 15:8 34 47 15 19:2 | 13 | Ain Musa, near Suez. 
12 
Ore. 58 75 14:8 | 16 38+5 46:5 15 18-1 .. | Hast of Suez Canal, Suez. 
One 58 78 15-4 | 16 35 44 15 18°5 .. | Suburbs of Cairo. 
Goo 58 80 15:8 | 16 32 46 146 | 17-2 a Abbasiyeh, Cairo. 
ORF 55 58 15 15:2 32'8 42:5 14 15:4 ea Tel el Amarna. 
One 47 69 12°8 | 13 28°5 37-4 12:°3 | 15:2 .. | East of Suez Canal, Suez. 
3 
Cie 42 55 12 12:7 24 35 11:5 | 13:5 | 14 Tel el Amarna. 
15 
11 
Goode) a) 41 10 11 21:3 29:2 ©) 12 Tl ” ” 


with any known species of the genus. As the type is probably still in Berlin, the 
zoologists of that Institution may possibly be able to say what it is. A specimen 
P 


106 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


presented by the Berlin Museum to that of Paris appears in A. Duméril’s Catalogue ! 
under A. mutabilis along with Olivier’s types of A. ruderata. 

Mr. Boulenger has described from Somaliland, under the name of A. robecchii 2, a very 
handsome lizard allied to this species, but distinguished from it by “the very slight 
difference in length between the third and fourth toes, the larger ear-opening, and the 
absence of a fringe above it, and the more strongly keeled dorsal scales.” The lizard 
recorded by Professor Vaillant * from the same region under the name of A. ruderata 
may possibly prove to be A. robecchit. 


AGAMA SINAITA, Heyden. (Plate X. fig. 1.) 


Agama sinaita, Heyden, Riipp. Atlas nordl. Afr. 1827, p. 10, pl. iii.; Dum. & Bibr. iv. 1837, p. 509 ; 
A. Duméril, Cat. Rept. Mus. Paris, 1881, p. 103; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; 
Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, p. 195; Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 49; 
Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i, 1885, p. 339; Ann. & Mag. N. H. (5) xx. 1887, p. 407; Werner, 
Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliii. 1894, p. 359; Anderson, Herp. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, 
pp. 27, 99. 

Agama arenaria, Heyden, Riipp. Atlas nérdl. Afr. 1827, p. 12. 

Podorrhoa (Pseudotrapelus) sinaita, Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 81. 

Trapelus sinaitus, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 259; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 489. 

Trapelus sinaiticus, Tristram, West. Palest. 1884, p. 154, pl. xvi. fig. 3. 

Agama sinaitica, Riipp. Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 302; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Moscou, 1879, no. 3, 
p. 37. 

Agama mutabilis, Blgr. (non Merrem) Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 388; Boettger (non Merr.), 
Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 48. 

Agama sinaiticus, Hart, Fauna & Flora of Sinai &c. 1891, p. 210. 


1 9. Plain of Suez. 


1 g,1 92,1 juv. Stony desert above Wadi Hoaf. 
1 2. Guarda, Dongola. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 


Body rounded, moderately depressed. Head cordate, much shorter than the tibia 
and more rounded in the male than in the female; the occipito-parietal and supra- 
orbital regions full and prominent; snout short; nostril slightly above or on the line 
of the canthus rostralis and directed backwards and upwards, in the hinder part of a 
rather large and swollen nasal shield; ear larger than the eye-opening; skin of the 
neck and throat in loose folds. Limbs long and slender, the fore limb when laid 
forwards has the wrist in advance of the snout; the hind limb when stretched 
forwards has the tip of the fourth toe as far forward as the snout, or it may only 


reach to the eye; the tibia is longer than the distance between the occiput (skull) and 


' Cat. Rept. 1851, p. 103. 
* Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser, 2, xii. (xxxii.) 1891, p. 6, pl. i. fig. 1. 
* Revoil, Faune et Flore Pays Comalis, 1882, Rept. et Batr. p. 8. 


Reptiles of Egypt. PI. X. 


mu 
wa 


aah 


J. Green del et lith. 


AGAMA SINAITA. Fig. 1 7, Plain of Suez. AGAMA SPINOSA. Fig. 2 3, & Fig. 3 ¢, Suakin. 


AGAMA SINAITA. 107 


the snout ; digits moderately long, the third digit the longest. Tail about twice as long 
as the head and body, rather broad at the base and depressed, the remainder laterally 
compressed. Scales on the head large, most so on the supraorbital area, where they 
are flat and tessellate or slightly imbricate in arrangement, but more or less obscurely, 
excentrically acuminate or ridged on the upper surface of the snout, where they are 
more irregular in form and size; on the occipito-parietal region they are also occa- 
sionally more or less feebly pointed; a series of large scales in an antero-posterior 
oblique line midway between the ear and the posterior angle of the orbit ; an enlarged 
triangular scale near the lower end of the anterior border of the ear, variously 
developed; no spines on the head or neck. Body covered with equal more or 
less imbricate keeled or nearly smooth scales, very regular in their arrangement, and 
with no enlarged scales scattered among them, but with the mesial dorsal lines of 
scales larger than the ventrals and rapidly diminishing in size towards the sides, where 
the scales are smaller than the ventrals. Ventrals smooth or feebly keeled here and 
there. Limbs covered with keeled imbricate scales, those on the under surface 
small and smooth: under surface of the digits covered with small brown spines. 
The scales on the tail strongly carinated, and three times as large as the largest 
dorsal scales, more or less imbricate, but not arranged in verticils. 

No gular pouch. Males with 4 to 8 preanal pores, more or less present in adult 
females. 

Colour: head yellowish, sometimes suffused with blue above, and in adult males its 
under surface from the chin to the chest rich blue; the same area in females yellow, 
or yellow marbled with dark bluish-grey lines. Upper surface and limbs may either 
be a pale reddish yellow or a dusky bluish yellow ; a broad reddish-brown band across 
the neck ending in an intensely blue area before the shoulder; a large deep rusty red 
spot on either side behind the shoulder, separated from each other in the mesial line, 
and a similar but smaller spot on each side of the loins before the hind limbs; sides of 
the body occasionally dusky greyish with obscure pale spots; the base of the tail with 
a number of similarly coloured bars; general colour of under surface yellowish white. 

I first met with this lizard on the grey stony desert plateau immediately above the 
Wadi Hoaf. It was resting at midday by the side of the footpath, with its blue head 
erect, but, as Lapproached it, it disappeared with remarkable rapidity under some stones 
and was lost; but a few days afterwards I went back to the spot and captured three 
specimens. I never observed it again near Heluan, but I obtained one on the stony 
desert between Suez and the Ataka mountains. | 

Its food appears to consist largely of ants, and in capturing them it swallows a 
considerable quantity of sand. 

The large female from Guarda was gravid, five eggs being in the left and four in the 
right oviduct ; and as each egg measured about 15 millim. in length, the abdomen was 
enormously distended. The rectum, full of the debris of ants mixed with fine sand, 

P2 


108 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


was quite as large as an egg and lay to the right of the mesial line, 7. e. on the side in 
which there was most room. 

This species, which has only been recorded from the right bank of the Nile, ranges 
northwards from Sennaar across the Isthmus of Suez to Southern Syria, the Sinaitic 
Peninsula, Arabia, Medina, Aden, Hadramut, Maskat, and Persia (A. Dumérit) }. 


Measurements &e. of A. sinaita, Heyden (in millim.). 


Snout Length | Width Length of Hens inice Length P 1 
Sex. to Tail. of O) Rann ienall| feo of ee Locality. 
vent. head. || head: |creeseraa|l behind. | tibia. | Pores: 
fe) SOM EG? 23 21 53 70 26 .. | Guarda, Dongola. 
fe} 76 | 124 21 18-5 49 68 26 4 | Plain of Suez. 
Ooaool Gs) || 140) IfsHs} |) i7/ 4d 65 24 4 | Desert above Wadi Hoaf, 
Heluan. 
ci 62 | 147 IG 17 41 65 24 + ” » ” 2 
Whe col) 2) 83 12 11:5 29 41 14:8 4 _ # ; 


I have examined the types of A. sinaita, Heyden, and A. arenaria, Heyden, preserved 
in the Frankfort Museum. The type of the former is a male with no gular pouch, and 
with six large preanal pores, 7. €. with the same number as occurs in the specimens in 
the British Museum referred to A. arenaria. The dorsal scales are small and imbricate, 
but feebly so, of very uniform size, but very regularly decreasing in dimensions towards 
the sides, where they are very small, yet still feebly imbricate. They are quite smooth 
on the anterior part of the body, but the scales on the limbs and sacral region appear 
to have been keeled, but only feebly so. ‘The features of this individual are the small 
size of the dorsal scales, the regularity of their arrangement, their little imbrication, 
and their generally hexagonal form. The scales on the ventral surface are almost as 
large as the central line of scales on the back, and are smooth, or feebly keeled here 
and there. ‘he scales on the outer sides of the limbs are considerably larger than any 
of those on the body, are strongly imbricate, and markedly keeled. The limbs are 
long and slender, and the third digit of both limbs is the longest. ‘The scales on the 
top of the head are large, juxtaposed, and smooth, and there is a spine at the anterior 
margin of the ear. The nostril is placed slightly above the canthus rostralis, and looks 
upwards aud backwards. The naked ear is larger than the eye-opening. ‘The tail is 
laterally compressed, and the scales are strongly keeled. ‘The coloration is completely 
faded. 

The foregoing specimen was from Arabia Petrea. 


1 Specimens examined. 


AGAMA SINAITA.- 109 


A. arenaria, Heyden, is represented in the Frankfort Museum by the two types from 
Upper Egypt, presented by Riippell. They do not appear to me to differ from 
A. sinaita, except in having their dorsal scales a little more strongly keeled. In both 
there are seven przanal pores. 

The females from the Hadramut have distinct preanal pores, also those from Suez 
and Heluan. 

The specimens of this species from Lower Egypt also illustrate its variations. I 
have met with it, as I have said, only on the Plain of Suez and in the desert (Wadi 
Hoaf) at Heluan. ‘The lizard from the former locality has its dorsal scales practically 
smooth, whereas those from the latter have distinctly keeled scales. The specimens in 
the British Museum referred to A. arenaria, Heyden, and also from Egypt, exactly 
resemble the lizard from the Plain of Suez; whereas two specimens in the British 
Museum from Mount Sinai, and referred to A. sinaita, Heyden, correspond to one of 
my Heluan lizards, a young individual 

The adult female from Heluan (Wadi Hoaf) has the mesial line of dorsal scales very 
slightly, if at all, enlarged, considering the fact that in all specimens belonging to one 
or other of these varieties the scales gradually diminish in size towards the sides. In 
this specimen, however, the scales are decidedly imbricate and distinctly keeled. On 
the other hand, in the specimen from the Plain of Suez the scales are only feebly 
imbricate, and carination is all but completely lost. ‘The mesial dorsal scales hold 
almost the same proportions to the lateral scales as in the Wadi Hoaf female. In 
both of these specimens, and in the Hadramut examples as well, the ventrals do not 
vary in size. As a rule, the Hadramut specimens have the mesial dorsal scales 
decidedly larger than the ventrals, and all have distinctly keeled scales, but, among 
some of them, the difference in size between dorsals, laterals, and ventrals graduates 
in the same way as in the Wadi Hoaf female. 

In view of these facts, and the exact similarity of these lizards in the other details 
of their external structure, the differences I have pointed out can only be regarded as 
illustrative of variation, but they present no stability to entitle them to varietal rank. 
It is only another example of the remarkable modifications to which the scales of many 
species of the genus Agama are subject. 


110 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


AGAMA FLAVIMACULATA, Riippell. (Plate XI.) 


Trapelus flavimaculatus, Riippell, Neue Wirbelth. Rept. 1835, p. 12, pl. vi. fig. 1; part., Mus. 
Senck. ii. 1845, p. 302. : 

? Agama agilis (non Olivier), Aud. Descr. de Egypte, Nat. Hist. i. ?1829, p. 169, Suppl. pl. i. fig. 5. 

Agama leucostigma, Bigr. (non Reuss), Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 346; part., Boettger, Kat. Rept. 
Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 49. 

? Agama agilis, Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. 11. 1876, p. 106. 

Agama flavimaculata, Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 59. 

Agama savignyi, Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 100. 

13 g and 42. Between Ismailia and Suez. Middlemass Bey, Inspector-General Coastguard 
Service, Egypt. 

1g. Beltim. Dr. J. G. Rogers. 

12. Kafr Amar, below Wasta, on Assiut Railway. 


- Body moderately elongate, not depressed; head broadly cordate in adults, less so in 
the adolescent, longer in some than in others; canthus rostralis not defined anterior 
to the nasal shield, which is circular, non-tubular, with the nostril directed backwards, 
outwards, and upwards in the hinder part of the shield internal to or on the canthus 
rostralis ; ear considerably smaller than the eye-opening, with a fringe of from 2 to 4 
pointed scales along its upper border. Limbs well developed, covered with regular, 
keeled, imbricate scales of moderate size. ‘The wrist reaches to the anterior border 
of the eye or to the nostril, and the tip of the fourth toe to the ear or nearly so. 
Third finger slightly shorter than the fourth, the fifth does not extend so far forwards 
as the second ; the fourth toe considerably longer than the third, the fifth does not 
extend so far as the first. Tibia shorter than the skull, occasionally nearly equal 
to it. ‘Tail longer or as long as the body and head, rounded, non-verticillate, rather 
thick at the base, especially in adult males, covered with regular keeled scales. Upper 
surface of the head covered with more or less convex scales, largest on the mesial line ; 
a number of large, more or less obtusely keeled scales behind the eye, with some 
generally strongly keeled spiny scales on the temporal region. Body covered above 
with moderately sized, unequal, rarely nearly equal, imbricate, more or less acuminate 
or feebly mucronate keeled scales, those on the sides about half the size of the dorsal 
scales and more or less obtusely keeled; 77 to 95 round the middle of the body. 
Ventral scales keeled. 

A well-developed gular pouch in both sexes, largest in the males. No preanal pores 
are present, but rarely some males show very faint indications of the tendency to 
form feebly callose scales. 

In adult Arabian specimens, in alcohol, the head is pale yellowish tinged with blue 
on the snout and on the occiput and temporal region, and with olive-brown in some ; 
body olive or greyish brown, the sides of the neck, the shoulder, and upper part of 
the fore. limb and sides of the body, and sometimes the mesial line of the back, 


2B D.IE 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


ui 


iy 


i Ke 


nape 


FLAVIMACULATA. 


MA 


G 


on 


Pi 


Wig. 1 g¢, Shaluf, Suez; Fig. 2 ¢, Suez District; I 


AGAMA FLAVIMACULATA. 111 


suffused with deep purple; the throat from the chin backwards to the chest deep 
purple, generally in lines converging to the pouch, which is uniformly purplish brown 
in an adult female. Many of the scales of the body, head and limbs entirely yellow, 
giving a spotted appearance to the lizard; the spots in some arranged more or less in 
transverse lines across the sides, and on the upper surface of the limbs in transverse 
bars. Under surface yellowish, with occasional purple spots or reticulations ; tail pale 
but bright yellow, obscurely banded with pale brownish, or the bands absent. 

In specimens from Egypt, in alcohol, the general colour is olive-grey or sandy 
yellowish, sometimes with traces of black on the head, back, and sides of the body, but 
more frequently absent ; occasionally many of the scales are pale yellow, but this does 
not occur to the same extent as in Arabian specimens. Underparts yellowish. Tail 
uniform with the body. In the young there is a narrow pale olive-brown band across 
the head between the eyes anteriorly, another behind the eye towards the ear, another 
from the upper angle of the orbit backwards to the shoulder; two posteriorly divergent 
bands arise on the occiput and pass backwards to the shoulder, but behind this point 
each line is continued interruptedly along the body to the base of the tail in the form 
of 5 short bars, each of which gives off a process passing obliquely upwards and 
forwards to the mesial line of the back, to join a corresponding one from the opposite 
side, while from the posterior end of each bar another process passes obliquely 
backwards and upwards to join its fellow of the opposite side; by this arrangement five 
pale triangular areas are defined along the mesial line of the back, the centre of each 
being traversed longitudinally by a pale brown spot; the band from behind the eye is 
continued behind the shoulder along the sides of the body in an almost similar manner. 
In the great majority of the specimens all traces of these bands are lost, but in two 
females (Pl. XI. figs. 2 & 3) the longitudinal interrupted continuations of the cervical 
bands remain persistent as light brick-red spots. ‘The figure of A. savignyt, Dum. & 
Bibr. (Deser. de VEgypte), shows a similar arrangement of spots, and in the type of the 
species the white spots of the mesial line of the back remain, while the bars defining 
them are obsolete. 

None of the specimens from Egypt attain to the dimensions of the lizards from 
Medina, and it may be that they constitute a local race distinguished solely by the 
smaller size of the individuals composing it, and leading into A. tournevillii, Lataste. 


Measurements of a male and female. 


¢. Snout to vent 95 mm., tail 123 mm. 
9 o ”? 9 83 9 29 120 2 


With three exceptions all my specimens of this species were obtained in the tract 
of country lying between Suez and Ismailia. One specimen was captured between 
Rosetta and Damietta, and two at Kafr Amar, a village above Cairo, and near to 


112 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Wasta on the railway to Assiut. I have never seen it alive myself, doubtless owing to 
the fact that I have never been in Kgypt during the months when reptilian life is in 
evidence everywhere. ES lt a 

The native name of this lizard is Byjl Jus! eo = kadi el gibdl azrak, or blue 
kadi of the desert. 

I have not met with in Egypt any lizard belonging to the group of which A. agilis 
may be taken as the type. 

In the Supplementary Plates illustrating the account of the Reptiles in the ‘ Deser. 
de I’Egypte,’ an agamoid lizard is represented on Pl. i. fig. 5. Audouin held that it 
did not differ from A. agilis, Olivier; but Duméril and Bibron, on the other hand, 
considered it to be a distinct species, which they named A. savignyi. 

In 1862, Peters received a lizard from Dongola which he referred to A. savignyi ; 
but, in 1869, he altered his opinion regarding it and described it as a new species, 
A. hartmanni. In this last communication he stated that A. savignyi was identical 
with A. flavimaculata, Riippell, and that it was quite distinct from what he styled 
the nearly allied A. agilis, Olivier, to which Duméril and Bibron have assigned 
A. flavimaculata, Riippell, as a synonym. 

I recently came into possession of five males and three females of A. flavimaculata, 
Riippell: one of them, an adult female, so closely resembles the type which I have 
studied in the Frankfort Museum, also a female, that it may be regarded as typical. 
The remaining specimens are specifically identical with this female. All of them 
were obtained at Medina, Arabia, whereas the type was described from a specimen 
captured at Jiddah. 

I am indebted to Middlemass Bey, Inspector-General of the Coastguard of Egypt, 
for having put me in the way of obtaining the foregoing seventeen lizards which 
I refer to this species, and to Dr. Rogers for a single specimen from the lower 
part of the delta. The specimen from Kafr Amar, a female (Pl. XI. fig. 3), differs 
considerably from the adult female from Medina in the more equal character of 
its scales and by their little carination, but the seeming gap between the two is filled 
up by other individuals differing still less from the typical form. The variation, 
although considerable, is much less than occurs in A. mutabilis. This Kafr Amar 
female may possibly be the same form as the lizard figured by Savigny and named by 
Duméril and Bibron A. savignyi, and represented with regular and equal scales. 

They are distinguished from A. agilis, the types of which I have examined on two 
occasions, thanks to the courtesy of Prof. Vaillant and M. Mocquard, by the more 
unequal and irregular character of their scales, in the more strongly keeled ventrals, 
in the presence of a large gular pouch in both sexes, in the absence of true preanal 
pores, and by their coloration. 

Audouin described the colours of the lizard figured by Savigny evidently from a 
coloured drawing made probably from life, as the colours he describes disappear, as a 


AGAMA FLAVIMACULATA. 115 


rule, when agamoid lizards have been placed in alcohol. The general colour, according 
to Audouin, was represented as a greenish yellow passing into olive; there were 
longitudinal series of well pronounced brown spots along the back, and similarly 
coloured transverse bands on the tail. The upper surface of the head and the pouch 
were of a beautiful brilliant blue. In connection with this account of the colours, it is 
noteworthy that the lizards from Lower Egypt here referred to A. flavimaculata are 
called by the natives “the blue judge of the desert”: as I have never seen it alive, 
I cannot say to what extent blue prevails. 

This species has been regarded by some herpetologists as identical with A. leucostigma, 
Reuss. ‘Through the kind permission of Professor Boettger I have examined the two 
types of the latter, both of which were from Upper Egypt. In them the nostril is 
situated on the canthus rostralis; the head is short and broad, the ear is smaller 
than the eye and has a fringe of 2 or 3 small pointed scales along its upper border. 
The body is depressed and covered with small, more or less imbricate, smooth or 
indistinctly keeled scales, with much larger scales scattered among them, each scale 
being more or less keeled and sometimes pointed. Limbs covered with imbricate 
keeled scales, some of which are larger than the others. Limbs moderately developed ; 
the fore limb when laid forwards has the wrist nearly between the nostril and the eye, 
while the hind limb (fourth toe) reaches the ear. The third finger is shorter than the 
fourth, and the fifth than the second ; the third toe is shorter than the fourth, and the 
fifth does not extend as far as the first. ‘Tail rounded, covered with keeled scales, 
with larger ones intermixed on the base. Ventral scales small, smooth. No gular 
pouch. Its depressed body, the marked difference between the small and large scales, 
the smooth ventrals, and the absence of a gular pouch are all features of A. pallida, 
with which it appears, as I have already said, to be identical. 

Jn the description I have given of the lepidosis of A. flavimaculata I have described 
the scales as unequal or rarely nearly equal. An illustration of the latter is the female 
from Kafr Amar, figured on Pl. XI. fig. 3, which recalls the figure of A. savignyt; but 
there is a young specimen from the area between Suez and Ismailia in which the scales 
have the same character. This specimen presents the peculiar banded coloration 
with enclosed triangular pale dorsal areas. Another specimen from the same locality, 
with similar coloration, has the scales distinctly unequal, and in this respect it 
leads into other and larger specimens, in which the scales are still more unequal 
and in which the coloration is uniform. In the first and smallest of these specimens 
the scales are convex and obtusely keeled, in the second the convexity is less marked, 
while in the third the scales are still more flattened, the keels sharp, terminating in a 
fine point and tending to become mucronate. These equal or nearly equal scaled 
lizards are the forms which lead into A. towrnevillit. 

One specimen considerably larger than any of those already considered, viz. a 
male, measuring 92 millim. from snout to vent, with a proportionally longer head 

Q 


114 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


than all the others, is still more pronouncedly like A. towrnevillii, even although its 
scales are unequal and more or less mucronate, as its head is long and pointed, with 
the snout very gradually sloping, the lower jaw being decidedly underhung. It 
has also the markings of A. fowrnevillit. All the other specimens, however, have short, 
broad and cordate heads like A. flavimaculata, but in them also similar markings to 
those of A. tournevillii are present. Unfortunately there is only one example of the 
latter species in the British Museum, and I cannot with it only as my guide refer 
A. tournevillii to A. flavimaculata. In an adult male of the latter from Medina, 
longitudinal brown bands occur as in those of the young specimen I have described, 
and exactly resembling those of A. tournevillii, and moreover their continuation on 
to the sides of the body can be detected although much obscured by their increased 
breadth and the presence of pale yellow spotted scales. On the mesial line of the 
back also, as in the type of the species, there are five or six white spots, the remains, 
as it were, of the pale dorsal areas of the young. My impression is that with further 
materials it will be possible to lead directly from typical A. flavimaculata into 
A. tournevillii through these eastern Egyptian lizards, the proportions of whose digits, 
as in typical A. flavimaculata, are the same as in A. tournevillit. ‘The latter will 
thus probably prove to be the Western Saharian modification of the Arabian lizard. 
A, tournevillii is provided with a single row of preanal pores; but while no pores 
have been present in any of the typical examples of A. flavimaculata examined by me, 
these Eastern Egyptian males, as has been mentioned, show a tendency, extremely 
feeble it is true, but still present in one or two, to the formation of callose scales. 

A. flavimaculata is closely allied to A. jayakari, but the latter is distinguished from 
the former by its large, regular, strongly keeled and mucronate scales, and by its less 
cordate head, which is considerably shorter than the tibia. 


AGAMA spinosa, Gray. (Plate X. figs. 2 & 3.) 


Agama spinosa, Gray, Griffith’s An. King. ix. 1831, Synop. p. 57, plate ; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. 1. 1885, 
p. 355; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi). 1896, p. 550; Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. ed 
Anfibi Mar Rosso, 1886, p. 18; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 51; Zool. Anz. xvi. 
1893, p. 114. 

Agama colonorum (non D. & Bibr.), Riippell, Neue Wirbelth. 1835, p. 14, pl. iv.; Mus. Senck. 11. 
1845, p. 302; Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 256; Blanford, Zool. Abyss. 1870, p. 449. 

Agama mutabilis, Lefebvre, Abyss. vi. p. 198, pl. i. fig. 2. 


6 6,3 $,and1juv. Hills behind Suakin. 
4 gand5¢. Erkowit, Suakin. 


Body elongate; head rather small, somewhat depressed ; nostril tubular, directed 


AGAMA SPINOSA. 115 


backwards and upwards, placed on the canthus rostralis. Har larger than the eye- 
opening, exposed. Limbs well developed, wrist generally reaching to the snout or 
slightly in advance of it, or falling short of the nostril; tip of the fourth toe reaching 
the ear, falling short of it, or extending to the eye; tibia longer than the skull; 
fourth toe only a little longer than the third. ‘Tail more than twice as long as the 
distance between the gular fold and the vent, broad at the base, laterally compressed 
beyond it. Scales on the head smooth, flat; generally no enlarged elongate scale 
on the mesial line of the snout; 10-11 upper labials ; occipital generally large; well- 
developed rosettes of rather long spines on the sides of the head and neck; nuchal 
crest moderately developed in the male, consisting of rather long spines, feeble in 
the female. Scales on the body strongly keeled, shortly mucronate, 62-78 round the 
middle of the body and 40-54 along the mesial line of the back between the origin 
of the limbs. Ventrals smooth. Caudal scales much larger than the dorsal, arranged 
more or less verticillately and keeled above in the male. 

A moderately well-developed gular pouch in the male. <A single row of from 7-12 
preanal pores present in both sexes. 

In the male the head is generally brownish red spotted with greenish yellow, the 
enlarged line of scales running from behind the nostril under the eye being of the 
latter hue; eyelids brick-red, with a purple spot on the middle of the lower eyelid; 
gular pouch brilliant orange-red, and its sides much paler, spotted with yellow in 
longitudinal lines, and the rest of the under surface of the head and neck dusky, 
purplish red spotted with yellow; upper surface of the body dark olive, spotted with 
yellow, with indications of a longitudinal series of large yellow markings along the 
sides; under surface bluish, the chest more so, and spotted with yellow ; palmar and 
plantar surfaces white. When excited, the entire upper surface of the trunk and of 
the tail become bright peacock-blue, more especially the tail, the body and the limbs 
being suffused with greenish ; a longitudinal line of white and blue scales appears on 
the middle of the back, from the shoulders to the loins, and the bright orange-red of 
the pouch and the deep blue of the under surface of the neck and front of the shoulders 
become very vivid. 

The female, from the nape to the loins, is yellowish olive or greenish olive, with 
three large lozenge-shaped dark orange-red markings on the back, one over the 
shoulder, another in the middle of the back, and one on the loins, each with a 
yellowish-olive spot in its centre; an orange-red narrow band before the first and 
behind the last dorsal marking; a series of large orange-red elongated spots along 
the sides of the body; the head is generally some shade of olive, or it may be even 
bluish, spotted with yellow and dark indigo-blue; dark blue bands are more or less 
present below the eyes; limbs and posterior part of the body and tail are yellowish 
olive ; underparts white, with a few obscure longitudinal blue lines on the throat. 


Q 2 


116 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements of the largest male and female. 


3. Snout to vent 126 mm., tail 220 mm. 
g CO 2”) 2) 95 2) +” 170 2) 


The females in the A. colonorum group are, as a rule, smaller than the males. 

The food of this species consists largely of beetles, with an admixture of other 
insects. Duméril and Bibron mention a specimen of A. colonorum that had been taken 
in a nest of Termites. 

The specimens of A. spinosa in my collection were from the neighbourhood of 
Suakin, and were brought to me alive by the Hadendowahs, who said they obtained 
them on the hills and on the plateau at Erkowit. I did not observe it on the plain 
around Suakin or on the way to Tokar. 

For many years this species was represented in the British Museum only by 
three specimens from Egypt: one presented by Sir J. G. Wilkinson and two by 
Mr. James Burton. It is impossible to conjecture from what part of Egypt Wilkinson 
obtained his specimen; but as the journeys of J. Burton are well known from the 
records he has left of them, preserved in the British Museum, I am inclined to 
think that he probably found them in his wanderings in the Eastern desert north of 
Keneh. It occurs also in the Sinaitic Peninsula. It has been recorded from 
Abyssinia and Shoa to the south. 

It is known to the Hadendowahs as the Woongailoom. 

This species is nearly allied to A. hartmanni, and perhaps more so to A. bibronit. 
The occipital is generally enlarged, but, like the other head-scales, it is liable to vary, 
and may only be slightly enlarged. The elongated scale on the front of the snout from its 
variable character is of no specific importance. <A. bibronii has a tolerably well- 
developed fringe of pointed scales at the anterior border of the ear, and also more or 
less along the upper border as well. In A. colonorwm and A. hartmanni there are 
scales occupying a similar position, but they are but little developed and reduced in 
number. In A. spinosa no such scales are present, but their place is taken by 
foliaceous rosettes of scales. In A. spinosa, beside the rosette at the front border of 
the ear, there is a group of spines behind the opening, three on the lateral aspect of 
the lower jaw, and two large ones on the sides of the neck. ‘The scales in these 
positions are much more strongly developed than in A. colonorum and A. hartmanni, 
but they are not so foliaceous as in A. bibronit. 

In the four species mentioned the dorsal scales are smaller than the caudals, and 
the former are nearly of equal size. They are perhaps on the whole largest 
in A. bibronii, which has 62-64 rows round the middle of the body; whereas in 
A. colonorum they vary from 60-80, in A. spinosa from 62-78, andin A. hartmanni from 
74-84. In all, the dorsal scales are more or less rhomboidal, mucronate, imbricate, 


AGAMA SPINOSA. 117 


and strongly keeled, with ridges formed by the keels converging towards the mesial 
line of the back. 

The limbs and digits of A. d¢bronii are rather shorter than they are in the other 
species. In all the foregoing species the third and fourth toes are nearly equal, the 
latter being, as a rule, a little longer than the former. 

With the exception of A. spinosa, the males of the foregoing species have no distinct 
gular pouch, but the skin of the throat is much plicate. This plication is so 
pronounced in A. spinosa (PI. X. fig. 2) that it is entitled to be regarded as a short 
pouch. 

While A. dibronii is confined to North-western Africa (Morocco, Algeria, and 
Tunisia), the Western A. colonorum, Daud., extends right across the continent! to 
within 60 miles of the shores of the Gulf of Aden?; and if A. cariniventris, Peters, 
is identical, as Dr. Tornier ® says it is, with the lizards referred by Peters to A. colonorum, 
and if the latter, as understood by Peters, was the true A. colonorum, the distribution 
of this species ranges southwards on the eastern coast to Zanzibar. On the other 
hand, A. hartmanni, Peters, is known only from Abyssinia, Somaliland‘, British East 
Africa ®, German East Africa ®, and Dongola in the Nile valley ’. 

Besides the last-mentioned species, four others also with equal keeled scales, the 
lines of carination being convergent towards the mesial line of the back, and with the 
other features of A. colonorum, have been described from Abyssinia and Somaliland. 
They are A. rueppellii, Vaillant’, A. smith, Blgr.®, A. lionotus, Blgr.!°, and 
A, vaillanti, Blgr.4 

The first of these is distinguished from all the others by its larger scales, of which 
there are only 48 round the middle of the body, and 26-34 !°, according to M. Mocquard, 
between the origin of the limbs along the mesial line of the back, those on the tail 
being still larger. Its head is short, recalling that of A. pallida, and the nostril 
resembles that of A. bibronit and A. hartmanni in being placed below the canthus 
rostralis. It is also closely allied to A. vaillanti, but differs from it in having a more 
elongate body, much larger scales, and a nuchal crest. It is, however, further affined 


* Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; Stejneger (Smithsonian Inst. no. 970, 1898); Proc. U.S. Nat. 
Mus. xvi. 1894, p. 717. 

* Blyr. Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) xvi. 1895, p. 167. % Kriechthiere Deutsch-Ost-Afr. 1897, p. 29. 

* Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, ii. 1885, p. 127; op. cit. xv. (xxxv.) 1895, p. 13; op. cit. xvii. 
(xxxvil.) 1896, p. 8 et p. 277; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 533; op. cit. 1896, p. 214. 

° Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 86. * Op. cit. p. 29. 

T Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1869, p. 65. 

* Révoil, Faune et Flore des Pays Gomalis, Rept. & Batr. 1882, p. 6, pl. i. 

* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 213, pl. vii. ” L. c. p. 214, pl. viii. 

™ Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xv. (xxxv.) 1895, p. 12, pl. iii. fig. 2. 

“ Mem. Cent. Sov. Philom. 1888, p. 115*. 


118 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


to it in the proportions of its digits, as in both the third finger is longer than the 
fourth ; this proportion, however, is reversed in the corresponding digits of the pes. 

Fingers with these proportions are met with in A. smithii and A. lionotus, whereas 
in A. bibronii, A. hartmanni, A. colonorum, and A. spinosa the third and fourth fingers 
are equal, but occasionally the equality is not well defined in the last-mentioned 
species, and in it third fingers are met with that are longer than the fourth, so that 
much importance cannot be attached to the relative length of these fingers in this 
group. 

A. smithii, Blgr., is only known from a single female. It is closely allied to 
A. spinosa, Gray, on the one hand, and also to A. rueppellii, Vaillant. A. lionotus, 
Bler., is related in some respects to the South-African A. planiceps, but at the same 
time differs from it very materially—e. g., its short and stout digits, feebly keeled dorsal 
scales, and larger rosettes on the sides of the head and neck. A. lionotus was 
obtained at an elevation of 2400 feet above the sea, close to the eastern side of the 
southern end of Lake Rudolf: and A. smithii 400 miles to the west between the 
Shebeli and Juba rivers, at an elevation of 700 feet !. 

A. lionotus ( ¢ ) is provided with a remarkably large scute at the base of each claw. 
It will be observed from Pl. X. figs. 2 & 3 that a similar scute is present in A. spinosa, 
and that it is much more developed in the male than in the female. In the female 
A. smithii this scute is very small ; but whether the females are always distinguished 
by a small and the males by a large ungual scute remains to be ascertained. The 
differences manifested by the sexes of agamoid lizards emphasize the necessity of 
accurately ascertaining the sexes of individuals described as new species by the actual 
inspection of the internal organs of generation, as it is impossible to place reliance on 
the absence or presence of preanal pores, or on the degree of development of femoral 
pores as’a guide to sex. 

The degree to which the tail is verticillated in the A. colonorum group varies 
considerably. In none of them do the yerticils embrace the entire base of the tail as 
in A. stellio and A. zonura, Blgr.; but these two species are linked to a certain extent 
with A. colonorum and its allies by such species as A. annectens and A. adramitana. 

I have mentioned the foregoing members of the A. colonorum group, as it is 
possible that some of them may be found to enter the Nile valley in the direction of 
Wadi Halfa. 


. Through unknown African Countries (A. Donaldson Smith), 1897, Route Maps. 


AGAMA HARTMANNIT. 119 


AGAMA HARTMANNI, Peters. 

Agama savignyi (non Dum. & Bibr.), Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271. 

Agama hartmanni, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1869, p. 65. 

Agama dorie, Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, ii. 1885, p. 127; Cat. Liz. B. M. ii. 1887, p. 495 ; 
Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xv. (xxxv.) 1895, p. 13; op. cit. xvil. (xxxvii.) 1896, p. 8; 
op. cit. 1897, p. 277; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 533; op. cit. 1896, p. 214; Giinther, Proc. 
Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 86. 

Body elongate; head moderate, slightly depressed; nostril tubular, directed 
backwards and outwards, placed below the canthus rostralis; ear larger than the 
eye-opening, exposed. Limbs well developed; wrist reaches the nostril or may extend 
in advance of the suout; tip of the fourth toe reaches the ear, to between the ear and 
the eye, or may only be slightly in advance of the shoulder. Tibia longer than the 
skull; third and fourth toes nearly equal, the fourth slightly longer than the third. 
Tail more than twice as long as the distance between the gular fold and the vent, 
broad at the base, laterally compressed behind it. Scales on head smooth, flat; an 
elongate scale on the snout present, little developed, or absent. 8-13 upper labials ; 
occipital enlarged. The rosettes of spines on the sides of the head and neck but 
little developed, the largest not half the diameter of the ear; nuchal crest slight. 
Scales on body strongly keeled, feebly mucronate, 67 to 88 round the middle of the 
body, and 40 to 50 along the mesial line of the back between the origin of the limbs. 
Ventrals smooth. Caudal scales much larger than the dorsals, arranged more or less 
verticillately and keeled above in the male. 

A single row of 10-12 przanal pores, not present in the female. No gular pouch, 
but a longitudinal gular fold. 

General colour, in alcohol, yellowish or olive above, spotted irregularly with brown 
and yellowish. A dark line from the lower border of the eye to the ear and another 
from its upper border, both prolonged on to the neck, and occasionally a yellow vertebral 
line along the trunk to the tail. Under surface of head spotted with brown; belly 
reticulated with dusky (female), or the whole under surface from the gular fold to the 
middle of the belly, including the sides of the body, shoulder and fore limb, brilliant 
blue (male). 

It has been recorded from the District of Mount Kenia (Taita and Fuladoya), from 
Western Somaliland (Shaikh Hussein, 5000 ft.), from Ogaden District, Central 
Somaliland, from Northern Abyssinia (Karen, Bogos), and from Dongola on the Nile. 

In 1869, Peters described this agamoid lizard from Dongola as A. hartmanni. As 
the type is in the Berlin Museum, I applied to Dr. Gustav Tornier for some 
information about it, as Peters’ description gives no clue to its affinities. I have thus 
again to express my indebtedness to Dr. Tornier for his unstinted assistance, as he 
had specially made for my use two enlarged photographs of the head and two views, the 
size of nature, of the entire lizard. Dr. Tornier mentioned A. bibronti and A. dorie 


120 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


as its nearest allies. Fortunately the types of the latter species are in the British 
Museum. 


Measurements &c. of the types of A. dorie in the British Museum (in millim.). 


paler Mee occa laecaa Tibia. | Pores. | uPPPr aan teteon ee Locality. 
vent, head. | head. "| body. | 615.0 | vent. 
6 salt Lu@ ie 23 20 26 10 |10+9 79 45 a Karen, Bogos. 
Chut 79 139 18 16 19 11 9+9 87 44 55 a z 
2 oh Gy | oo 12 | ie || mn 1 ORO | GA 42 (a 
® ga) FES |} ways|| ys || eS |) ay 1 | O20 | SS 44 50 ee 
® i) 96 165 | 146 | 17 9+9 | 88 46 oe ae: 
® .| 7 | oc |1GG | [aga i) .. | G2 || eo 40 piles 
D gol GB» | ee DG ~ ae | ay «6 | 928° | 24 42 A fe 
6 sail 1418) a0 24 23 29 aes 11-12") 72 40 Bid Taita. 
Owe 80 ot 20 17°5 | 21 at 10411 70 44 A Fuladoya. 


The enlarged view of the head of A. hartmanni shows the nostril to be directed 
outwards and backwards and to be placed below the canthus rostralis. The scales on 
the upper surface of the head are smooth or very faintly keeled here and there. The 
enlarged scale on the snout is not present. There are 13 upper labials. The groups 
of spines on the sides of the head and neck are very small, but their presence is 
distinguishable ; the tympanum is wholly uncovered. There isa slight nuchal crest, and 
I am informed by Dr. Tornier that there are 48 rows of scales along the dorsal line 
between the origin of the limbs, and 67 rows of scales round the middle of the body. 
The fourth toe is a little longer than the third, but so slightly that the two may be said to 
be subequal ; itisas long asthe snout. The type isa male with a row of preanal pores. 

In one of the types of A. doriw there are as many as 12 upper labials on one side of 
the head and in others 10 and 11, and by the highest of these numbers we are led on 
to the 13 upper labials found in the unique specimen of A. hartmanni. Mr. Boulenger, 
who has examined many examples of A. doriw, gives the variation in the number of 
scales along the mesial linef the back between the origin of the limbs as 45-50, so 
that the number 48 found in A. hartmanni is overlapped by the highest of the 
numbers. In the types of A. doriw I find that the scales round the body range from 


* Seems to have been partially restored. 
* Mr. Boulenger mentions a specimen from Ogaden with 12 upper labials on one side and 9 on the other. 


AGAMA HARTMANNI. 121 


70 to §8, but the difference between the lowest of these numbers and the 67 present in 
A. hartmanni is so slight as to be of no importance. In all the types of A. dorie there 
are a few pointed scales at the anterior and upper borders of the ear, forming almost a 
short fringe in some, while in others they are reduced to two or three scales. In 
the enlarged figure of the head of A. hartmanni similar scales are present in that 
position. 

From the foregoing facts I think it is evident that it is impossible to regard A. dorie 
as distinct from A. hartmanni. 

A. bibronit has its nostril in the same position as in A. hartmanni ; it possesses a 
slight nuchal crest; the scales on the upper surface of the head are smooth or feebly 
keeled; it has 11 to 14 upper labials, 40 rows of scales along the back between the 
origin of the limbs, and 62 to 64 scales round the middle of the body. The third and 
fourth toes are equal and as long as the snout, measured, as in A. dorie, from the pos- 
terior border of the eye. ‘The only points apparently in which A. dibronii differs from 
A. hartmanni are the slightly larger rosettes of scales on the sides of the head and 
neck and the larger body-scales, which are scarcely smaller than the caudals, while in 
A. hartmanni they are decidedly smaller. 

In the largest of the types of A. dorie the scales on the nape pass gradually into 
those on the hinder part of the neck, but in the females the scales in that region are a 
little smaller than those behind them. In a male from Taita and another from 
Fuladoya the nuchal scales are perceptibly smaller than those of the back; but the 
difference is slight, and from the variations that occur no importance is to be attached 
to the slight differences in the size of these scales. 

In A. hartmanni the rosettes on the side of the head and neck differ from those present 
in A. bibronit, A. colonorum, and A. spinosa in their little development. In A. spinosa, 
for example, 8 groups of rosettes bearing spiny scales can be counted, one at the 
anterior, another at the posterior border of the ear margin, 3 groups below and behind 
the ear on the lateral aspect of the angle of the lower jaw, a small group on the hinder 
portion of the temporal region, and two large groups on the side of the neck. In 
A. hartmanni there are no distinct rosette-like eminences at the anterior and posterior 
borders of the ear, their place being taken by simply enlarged pointed scales. On the 
temporal region there is a feeble rosette and two equally ill-defined ones behind and 
below the ear, the lowest being in a line with the angle of the mouth. ‘The two 
rosettes on the neck are feebly developed, so that instead of 8 well-developed groups of 
rosettes as in A. spinosa, A. bibronit, &c., there are in reality only 5, the place of the 
others being represented by spines. 

Owing to the almost elementary character of its head and neck spines, this species 
can never be mistaken for A. spinosa. From A. colonorum it is separated by its nostril 
being placed below the canthus rostralis, by its smaller head-spines and longer digits. 


R 


122 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


AGAMA STELLIO, Linn. (Fig. 7.) 


Crocodile de terre, Tournefort, Voy. du Levant, i. 1717, pl. p. 313. 

Le Stellion du Levant, Cuv. Rég. An. ii. 1817, p. 32. 

Lacerta stellio, Linn. Mus. Lud. Ulr. Regine, ii. 1764, p. 37; Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, 
p- 801; Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 361. 

Cordylus stellio, Lam. Synop. Rept. 1768, p. 52. 

Stellio vulgaris, Daud. Rept. iv. 1803, p. 16; Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. Deser. de VEgypte, Hist. Nat. i. 
? 1827, p. 127, pl. ii. fig. 3; Dict. Class. Hist. Nat. xv. 1829, p. 627; Heyden, Riippell’s Atlas 
nordl. Afr. 1827, Rept. p. 6, pl. ii.; Guérin, Iconog. Rég. An. 1828, pl. vi. fig. 2; Bibr. et Bory 
St. Vincent, Expéd. Se. Morée, Rept. 1833, p. 68, pl. xi. fig. 1 & pl. xiii. fig. 1; Duvernoy, 
Rég. An., Rept. (1835-46) pl. xiii. fig. 1; Dum. & Bibr. iv. 1837, p. 528; Riippell, Mus. 
Senck. iii. 1845, p. 302; A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 105; Steindach. Unger 
& Kotschy’s Insel Cypern, 1865, p. 572; Shreiber, Herp. Europ. 1875, p. 469; Gasco, 
Viagg. Egitto, pt. ii. 1876, p. 107; Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. 1879, no. 3, p. 38 ; 
Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879, p. 78, et 1880, p. 196; Lortet, Arch. Mus. Lyon, 1883, 
iii. p. 187. 

Agama cordylea, Merr. Tent. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 55. 

Stellio antiquorum, Wichwald, Zool. Spec. 11. 1831, p. 187. 

Stellio cyprius, Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 85. 

Stellio cordylina, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 255; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, p. 741 ; 
Tristram, West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 154. 

Agama stellio, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 368; op. cit. iii. 1887, p. 496; Boettger, Kat. Rept. 
Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 52; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, 1894, no. 167, ix. p. 7; Anderson, 
Herp. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 62, 101. 


26,2 9,and3juv. Gabari, Alexandria. 
2juv. Ramleh, Alexandria. 
1 gand1juv. Tor, Sinaitic Peninsula. 


Body rather short and much depressed ; head large, about half the length of the 
body from the nape of the neck to the base of the tail, swollen in the males from 
behind the eyes, triangular in form, with the canthus rostralis sharply defined ; nasal 
shield large, flat, or slightly swollen, placed below the canthus rostralis, nostril directed 
outwards and backwards; eye smaller than the ear-opening, which is circular and 
quite exposed. Limbs well-developed and strong; wrist reaches to between the eye 
and the nostril, even to the snout, and the fourth toe to between the ear and eye or to the 
eye; fourth digit the longest. Tail considerably longer than the body and head, rather 
broad and depressed at the base, and rounded beyond. Skin on the neck in loose folds, 
the gular fold passing upwards in front of the shoulder-pit and along the side of the 
back with other folds below it. Head-scales moderately large, generally an elongate 
scale or two, larger than the others, on the mesial line of the snout, smooth or feebly 
keeled, but strongly keeled on the post-temporal region; occipital not enlarged; the 


AGAMA STELLIO. 123 


sides of the head before, behind, and below the ear with many short, strong, spiny 
scales, either single or in small groups or rosettes; the folds of the upper surface and 
sides of the neck and those on the sides of the body beset with single spines or small 
groups of spines. The body covered with minute granular scales, but with numerous 
enlarged keeled scales intermixed among them, especially on the mesial line of the 
back, and generally a single line of these enlarged scales from the occiput and continued 
to the anterior halfof the back, with other irregular lines external to it ; enlarged scales 
arranged, more or less, in longitudinal but more especially in transverse series, and of 
the latter there are from 20 to 24 between the shoulders and the base of the tail. Many 
of the enlarged scales have sharp points and some of the largest external to the mesial 
line of the back are trihedral. The scales on the centre of the throat strongly 
keeled. Ventrals small and perfectly smooth. Limbs covered above with scattered, 
large, keeled spinose scales. The tail with keeled scales, arranged in well-defined 
segments, each whorl consisting of two rings in the anterior half and three in the 
terminal half. 

No gular pouch. A large precloacal patch of actively secreting scales in the male, 
numbering occasionally as many as 60, and an elongated patch of similar structures on 
the mesial line of the abdomen. 


Agama stellio, Linn. 


Upper surface dark olive-grey or olive-brown, many of the scales on the side of the 
head and along the lower jaw yellow; throat of the male deep leaden bluish, paler in 
the female, and in both occasionally reticulated with darker lines; under surface dark 
greenish yellow; tail yellowish below, brownish above, with 12 to 14 brown bands. 

3. Snout to vent 284 millim., tail 170. 


124 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


This well-known lizard is very common along the sea-face of the delta, and is 
especially numerous around Alexandria, where, when the sun is shining, there is 
scarcely a garden wall or a stony slope on which it may not be seen jerking its head 
after the fashion of its kind. It is extremely wary, and when disturbed seeks for 
shelter in the crevices of rocks and walls and among stones. I unexpectedly found it 
abundant under old flattened-out oil-tins lying among heaps of rubbish by the sides of 
the road in the market gardens at Gabari. When pursued it betook itself to the 
nearest tree, running up the highest palm with the greatest ease. 

I have neither observed it in the neighbourhood of Cairo nor to the south of that 
city. 

This species is distributed over S.E. Europe, the islands of Cyprus, Mykonos, Milo, 
Cephalonia, Paro, Delos, Chios, &c., also over Asia Minor, Syria, Northern Arabia, 
the Sinaitic Peninsula, and the northern coast-line of Egypt!. A specimen has been 
recorded from Tetuan, on the African coast, to the east of the Straits of Gibraltar, but 
Mr. Boulenger suggests that it may probably have been imported. 

It is known to the Arabs as ,45,>=hardun. 

The excrement of this lizard was in olden times highly prized in the east as a 
precious cosmetique, but it has now wholly fallen into disuse. It was known under 
the names of Cordylea or Crocodilea and Stercus lacerti. 

The lizard A. annectens, Blanford?, which serves to connect the “ Stellio” section of 
the genus with such forms as A. planiceps, Peters, and through it with the A. colonorum 
group, occurs in Abyssinia and in Western Somaliland. On the Goolis Mountains, 
inland from Berbera, another allied form, A. phillipsii®, Blgr., is found; and on the 
coast of Massowah, and also in the centre of Abyssinia, at an elevation of 7000 ft., and 
in Western Somaliland, at 5000 ft. above the sea, still another, viz. A. cyanogaster 4, 
Ruppell, occurs. According to A. Duméril’s Catalogue, the latter has also been 
obtained in Arabia, if Botta’s specimen was really from that locality, which seems 
doubtful, as A. Dumézil, in the introduction to his Catalogue, states that M. Botta’s 
collections were made in the region of the Nile. 

In Western Somaliland there is an interesting form, A. zonura, Blgr.®, that serves, 
according to Mr. Boulenger, to link the ‘ Stellios” with the somewhat remarkable 
lizard A. batillifera® (also from Somaliland), which he considers should be regarded as 
the type of a subgenus Xenagama, on account of the extreme flattening and abbreviation 


* The lizard mentioned in Lefebvre’s Voy. en Abyss. vi. Zool. p. 201, under the name of Stellio vulgaris, 
may probably be A. annectens, Blanford, Zool. of Abyss. 1870, p. 446. 

* Zool. Abyss. 1870, p. 446, fig. 

* Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) xvi. 1895, p. 167, pl. vii. fig. 3. 

“ Neue Wirbelth. 1835, Rept. p. 10, pl. y. 

* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 533, pl. xxix. fig. 3. 

* Faune et Flore des Pays Comalis, 1882, Rept. & Batr. p. 10, pl. ii. 


AGAMA STELLIO. 


of its tail. I have mentioned these species as it is not at all improbable that some 
of them may be found to enter the valley of the Nile or to extend to the north along 


the mountains to the west of Suakin. 


Synopsis of the Species found in Egypt. 

I. Occipital not enlarged. Caudal scales not forming annuli. No enlarged 
groups of spines on the sides of the head and neck. Dorsal scales 
unequal. 

A. Fourth toe the longest. 
a. Scales on the upper surface of the hind limb equal or nearly so. 
(1) Ventrals smooth or feebly keeled. A small gular pouch in the 
male . Ee MSE ane mon HUMP OR em BPA EN iG ve 
(2) Ventrals strongly keeled. A large pouch in the male and female. 
6. Scales on the upper surface of the hind limb, with larger scales inter- 
mixed; smaller dorsal scales smooth or indistinctly keeled. No 
gular pouch . SUAS Mey Rep Uso eee Ea arent alt re 
B. Third toe the longest. Median dorsal scales the largest, smooth or 
keeled BOY ce naieom cool dommehs eye haw tase, borin sant ol aaa 
Il. Occipital enlarged. Caudal scales forming annuli. Groups of enlarged 
spiny scales on the side of the head and neck. 

(1) Groups of cephalic and cervical spines well developed, } as long as 
the diameter of the ear-opening ; 62-78 rows of scales around the 
DOC ype: strict a ott acts caer tay cee Meat ag) gall atin Wee 

(2) Groups of cephalic and cervical spines feebly developed, longest spines 
less than $ the diameter of the ear-opening ; 74-84 rows of scales round 
Chesbociy a gemenir pecan wake cerry Recent srk iyemiben jes Ce mano vars 

III. Occipital not enlarged. Caudal scales divided into segments composed of 
two or more rings of scales. 

Sides of head and neck with short spines 


A. mutabilis. 
A. flavimaculata. 


A. pallida. 


A. sinaita. 


A. spinosa. 


A. hartmanni. 


A. stellio. 


126 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


UROMASTIX. 
Uromastix, Merrem, Tent. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 56. 


Body depressed, no dorsal or nuchal crest, covered with granular or small smooth 
scales, smaller than the ventrals, largest on the head; head short, triangular, canthus 
rostralis obtuse, the nostril near the end of the snout; tympanum naked, vertically 
elongate ; loose folds of skin on the neck; a gular fold; no gular pouch. ‘Tail broad, 
depressed, strongly segmented, each segment consisting of quadrangular, strong, 
spinose scales, in contact on the upper surface with the neighbouring segments, or 
separated from them on the upper surface by minute scales. Limbs short and stout, 
with strong claws; hind limb with spinose tubercles. Preanal and femoral pores. 

No canines; the incisor teeth disappear with age, their place being taken in the 
upper jaw by a beak-like growth of the premaxillaries, covered with enamel. The 
anterior molars also disappear above and below, and the jaw becomes a sharp cutting- 
edge immediately behind the premaxillary beak. 


The term “ Dabb,” “., is applied by the Arabs to the species of this genus. 

The African species of Uromastix belong to that section of the genus in which the 
segments on the upper surface of the tail are not separated from each other by interposed 
small scales. The species are U. ocellatus, Licht., U. ornatus, Heyden, U. wgyptius, 
Hasselq. & Linn., and U. acanthinurus, Bell. 

There are two subdivisions of this section, viz. one in which the tail is encircled by 
the segments, which are as long on the under as on the upper surface ; and another in 
which this is not the case, as two or more transverse rows of scales on the under 
surface correspond to one of the dorsal segments. U. ocellatus, Licht., and U. ornatus, 
Heyden, belong to the first of these subdivisions, and U. egyptius, Hasselq. & Linn., and 
U. acanthinurus, Bell, to the second. An Asiatic species, U. microlepis, Blanford, also 
belongs to this subdivision. 

‘The other primary section of the genus, in which the spinose segments on the upper 
surface of the tail are separated from each other by interposed small scales, is represented 
by three species, U. hardwickii, Gray, U. asmussii, Strauch, and U. loricatus, Blanf., 
confined to Asia. 


WAL, 200, 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


UROMASTIX OCELLATUS. 


Fig. 1¢, Fig. 2¢, Suakin. 


UROMASTIX OCELLATUS. 127 


URoMASTIX OCELLATUS, Licht. (Plate XII.) 

Uromastiz ocellatus, Licht. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1823, p. 107; part., Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 86; 
Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 2713; part., Peters, Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Fr. 1882, p. 45; 
Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 499; Anderson, Herp. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 101. 

Uromastix ornatus (non Heyden), Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 261; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. 1. 
1885, p. 406. 

13 $,15 2,and1juv. Neighbourhood of Suakin. 

19%; yadi Halfa. Major Henry d’Alton Harkness. 


Ear with no enlarged conical scales at its anterior border. Body-scales very small, 
quadrangular, flattened, 260 round the middle of the body including the ventrals ; 
about 95 to 100 ventrals between the inguinal and gular folds; no enlarged tubercles 
on the flanks or on the fore limb, but with a few irregularly shaped pointed scales on the 
thigh, and enlarged conical tubercles on the tibial portion of the limb. Tail gradually 
tapered to a point, much depressed. Caudal segments strongly spinose laterally. 

In life, the colours are very vivid in the male; in some the entire upper surface of 
the head and body is rich light red vermiculated with blackish, whereas the head in 
some is dark olive-green spotted with red, and in others red spotted with green. 
Seven or eight transverse bands or chains of round white spots on the back, each spot 
margined with black and its centre frequently occupied by a dusky yellowish spot. 
Sides of the neck, body, and tail dark green, which in some males is prolonged upwards 
on to the back between the chains of spots. Upper surface of the limbs dusky green. 
Throat and chest generally light green, or vivid blue from the chin along the throat ; 
the under surface of the body yellow, with the green of the sides prolonged inwards on 
to the belly in transverse bands, or without markings. Upper surface of the tail bluish 
green in some, suffused with red in others; spines greenish; under surface of limbs 
and tail whitish. 

In the females the colours are much less vivid, there never being any bright red on 
the back, and the tail being uniformly dusky yellow and green. 

The young animal is dusky brown, and in it the general arrangement of the colour 
is well seen. Eight dusky bands of varying extent are prolonged inwards towards the 
mesial line of the back, those on the neck being little more than spots. They are 
separated from one another by very pale dusky areas, on which the white black-edged 
ocelli occur. The tail is paler than the body; the underparts are whitish, spotted with 
dusky; three black bands radiate downwards from the eye. 

Measurements of an adult male :—Snout to vent 150; vent to tip of tail 138 millim. 

This is the smallest of the African species of the genus and the most brilliantly 
coloured. It is very common in some parts of the Suakin plain, judging from the 
number of specimens brought to me. I kept afew of them alive for some weeks in 
the Zoological Garden in Cairo, feeding them on clover, on which they appeared to 


128 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


thrive. They were very torpid in the mornings, and never made any attempt to feed 
until they had lain for some time under the full influence of the sun, when they became 
very active. 

I sent one of my specimens to Dr. Tornier, and I am indebted to him for the 
information that it perfectly agrees with Lichtenstein’s type of the species from Nubia, 
preserved in the Berlin Museum. 

The two lizards referred by Gray to U. ornatus, Heyden', are identical with the 
foregoing specimens, which are distinguished from Heyden’s species by their smaller 
scales, by the entire absence of any enlarged scales along the anterior border of the 
ear, by their more elongate and more spinose tails, shorter caudal whorls, and by their 
coloration. It is impossible to say in what part of Egypt Burton obtained his 
specimens; but as he made more than one journey in the Eastern desert, that is to the 
east of the Nile, it is likely that they came from that region, as it is known that other 
species found around Suakin spread northwards along that area. 

From Suakin it extends to Wadi Halfa, whence Peters recorded it, in 1862; 
and among my specimens there is one from the same locality presented to me by 
Major Harkness. Peters mentions its presence also in the island of Socotra. 

It is known to the Hadendowahs as the Kurfeefanope. 


URomastix ornatus, Heyden. (Plate XIII.) 


Uromastia ornatus, Heyden, Riippell’s Atlas nord]. Afr., Rept. 1827, p. 1, pl.i.; Wagler, Syst. Amph. 
1830, p. 145; Schinz, Naturgesch. Abbild., Rept. 1833, p. 91, tab. 31. fig. 3; Dum. & Bibr. 
iv. 1837, p. 538; Riippell, Mus. Senck. iti. 1845, p. 303; A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 
1851, p. 108; part., Peters, Sitz. Ges. nat. Fr. Berl. 1882, p. 45; Tristram, West. Palest., 
Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 154; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 55; Werner, Verh. 
zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliii. 1894, p. 8359; Anderson, Herp. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 79. 
Uromastiz ocellata, Fitz. Syn. Rept. 1843, p. 86. 


1 g. Mount Sinai. 


Ear with enlarged conical scales at its anterior border. Body-scales much larger 
than in the previous species, flat, smooth, and almost subimbricate, 220 round the 
middle of the body including the ventrals; ventrals large, 80 to 85 between the 
inguinal and gular folds; no enlarged tubercles on the flanks or on the fore limb, 
but very large spinose scutes on the hind limb. Tail broad and rather abruptly 
pointed, not round, depressed ; segments rather long antero-posteriorly, not markedly 
spinose. 

Head dark grass-green in life, somewhat yellowish on the sides and marbled with 
darker; body green, tinged with reddish violet; 6 or 7 irregular, broad, entire or 


1 Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 261. 


Pl. XIIl. 


Reptiles. of Egypt. 


UROMASTIX ORNATUS. 


inai. 


¢, Mount S: 


-m. 6 - aa 
’ A a 
‘el fl 
: by i ih Anew 
i Sl emiole 
i fea 
if : nie 
4 C fl 
' i « 
- Lt 
i - ‘ dM ae 
ao Al Son SF 
‘ : ‘ie 
i ¥ ’ 
iy vy, 4 
ay i a ee kB 
7 cere. 
if : : if } 


Pl. XIV. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


UROMASTIX ASGYPTIUS. 


¢, Suburbs of Cairo. 


i 


iiiie | 


UROMASTIX AGYPTIUS. 129 


broken up citron-yellow cross-bands, the scales of these areas with dark points; tail 
greyish green shading into reddish; limbs dark grass-green marbled with yellow. 
Digits greyish brown. (/Teyden.) 

General colour, inalcohol, yellow; transverse, regularly outlined, dusky bars on the 
sides, eight in number, from the neck to the base of the tail, but not meeting on the 
mesial line of the back; the upper surface of the back vermiculated with reddish lines 
tending to form ocelli. Head suffused with deep purple on the sides, and below the 
eye with purple, tending to form vertical bars. Under surface of the head from the 
chin to the gular fold bluish green, broadly reticulated with dark purple and dark blue ; 
the sides of the belly and under surface of the limbs yellowish, covered with bluish- 
black reticulations. Upper and under surface of tail bright yellow. 

¢. Snout to vent 210 millim.; vent to tip of tail 175 millim. 

The specimen of this lizard in my possession came from an altitude of 500 métres 
in the granitic region of Mount Sinai. 

Duméril and Bibron in their description of U. ornatus say erroneously that the type 
of the species was from North Africa, whereas its author, Heyden, not Rippell as 
stated by them, mentions that it came from Mohila, on the east coast of the Red Sea. 
They also record that in the Paris Museum there were two magnificent examples 
sent from Egypt by Botta, the travelling naturalist to the Museum. According to the 
dimensions given by them, it would appear, if their identification of Botta’s specimens 
with U. ornatus was correct, that this species attains to a very great size, viz. to 
nearly three feet in length. 

Its presence in Egypt has yet to be verified. It occurs not only in the Sinaitic 
Peninsula and Arabia proper, but extends also into the southern desert of Palestine 
according to Canon Tristram. 

In appearance it is remarkably like U. (Aporoscelis) benti. 


URoMASTIX aGYPTIUS, Hasselq. & Linn. (Plate XIV.) 


The Dhab or Dab, Shaw’s Travels, 1738, p. 250. 

The Dhab, Bruce’s Travels, v. App. 1790, p. 198. 

La Fouette-queue @’ Egypte, Cuv. Rég. An. ii. 1817, p. 32. 

Lacerta egyptia, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, p. 302; Forsk. Deser. An. &c. 1775, p. viii 
et p. 13; Donndorff, Beytr. iii. 1798, p. 136. 

Stellio spinipes, Daud. Rept. iv. 1803, p. 31; Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Descr. de ’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. 
21827, p. 125, pl. 2. fig. 3; Griffith’s An. King. ix. 1831, p. 121, plate. 

Uromastix spinipes, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 56; Heyden, Riippell’s Atlas nérdl. Afr., Rept. 
1827, p.5; Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Dict. Class. d’ Hist. Nat. xv. 1829, p. 627; Wagler, Syst. Amph. 
1830, p. 145 ; part., Gray, Syn. Rept. Griffith’s An. King. ix. 1831, p. 61; Wiegm. Herp. 

s 


130 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Mexic. 1834, p. 17; Dum. & Bibr. iv. 1837, p. 541; Duvernoy, Cuv. Reg. An., Rept. 1847, 
pl. xiii. fig. 2; Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1848, p. 86; Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 261; Riippell, 
Mus. Senck. iti. 1845, p. 303; A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 108; Klunzinger, 
Zeitschr. Ges. Erd. Berl. xiii. 1872, p. 94; Schreiber, Herp. Europ. 1875, p. 474; Gasco, 
Viagg. Egitto, pt. i. 1876, p. 107; Giinther, Burton’s Gold Mines of Midian, 1878, p. 398 ; 
Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 307; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. 407 ; op. cit. ii. 1887, 
p. 499; Ann. & Mag. N. H. (5) xx. 1887, p. 407 ; Tristram, West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, 
p- 154; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 55; ? Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 
1894, p. 110. 

Mastigura spinipes, Fleming, Phil. Zool. 11. 1822, p. 277. 

Uromastix egyptius, Anderson, Herp. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 101. 


Between Suez and Ismailia. 
Plain of Kafr Gamus. 
Beltim. Dr. J. G. Rogers. 
Suburbs of Cairo. 


Hee Se Ye 
+0 Oy +40 40 


Ear with enlarged scales at its anterior border. Body covered with minute conical 
scales, 320 round the middle of the body including the ventrals ; ventrals small, 140 
between the inguinal and gular folds ; enlarged tubercles on the flanks, on the outside 
of the forearm, and on the outer upper surface of the hind limb; tail depressed, 
gradually tapered ; caudal segments strongly spinose above. 

Yellowish or greenish olive above, suffused with bluish green on the labials and on 
the front of the head; the upper surface of the limbs punctulated with dusky brown. 
Under surface of the head, the loose skin of the neck, and belly reticulately marked 
with brown. Tail yellow above, brighter yellow below. 

¢. Snout to vent 356 millim.; vent to tip of tail 255 millim. 

This lizard is generally found along the lines of drainage of the desert, as it there 
finds the sparse vegetation on which it lives. In such localities it constructs deep 
tortuous burrows, some of which I have traced to a depth of 4 feet through very 
hard sand. It is also found in the deep water-worn wadis, where there is frequently a 
better supply of vegetable food than in the open desert. It is said to feed in the early 
morning and at sundown. It is common, for example, on the great plain of Kafr 
Gamus, beyond Abbasiyeh, where it is associated with Agama pallida. 

It is distributed over the desert region of Northern Egypt. Its extension to the 
south is unknown, but it is said to extend into Nubia. Peters has recorded it from 
the south of Cyrenaica; and M. E. Olivier mentions that he captured an individual, 
in 1892, upon the hills to the north of Biskra, but states that it is very rare in Algeria ; 
the specimen, however, from Biskra, recorded by Dr. Giinther in 1859 as Uromastiwv 
spinipes, proved to be U. acanthinurus. 

It also occurs in the dry desert portions of the sea-face of the delta, and is likewise 
found in the Sinaitic Peninsula, Southern Judea, Arabia (Midian and Maskat), and in 


the island of Crete. 


Pl. XV. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


UROMASTIX ACANTHINURUS. 


Duirat, Eastern Tunisia. 


é. 


UROMASTIX ACANTHINURUS. 131 


Wilkinson ! includes it in his list of animals known to the ancient Egyptians. A 
figure of a lizard with a thick tail, that may possibly have been intended for 
an Uromastixz, occurs in Rosellini’s great work 2. 

The species was figured and described by Belon® under the name of Crocodile 
terrestre ow Crocodile d Arabie. 

It is generally seen in the possession of conjurers, owing to the mildness of its 
disposition and its striking appearance. 


UROMASTIX ACANTHINURUS, Bell. (Plate XV.) 


Uromastiz acanthinurus, Bell, Zool. Journ. i. 1825, p. 457, pl. xvil.; Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, 
p- 145; Gervais, Ann. Se. Nat. (2) vi. 1836, p. 309; Dum. & Bibr. iv. 1837, p. 548; Fitz. 
Syn. Rept. 1843, p. 86; Riippell, Mus. Senck. ii. 1845, p. 803; Gray, Cat. Rept. B. M. 
1845, p. 262; Guichenot, Explor. Sc. Alg., Rept. v. 1850, p. 8; A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris 
Mus. 1851, p. 109; Strauch, Mém. Ac. Sc. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 30; Boettger, 
Kobelt’s Reiseerin. Alg. und Tunis, 1885, p. 465; Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 55; Blgr. 
Cat. Rept. B. M. i. 1885, p. 406; Trans. Zool. Soc. xii. 1891, p. 119; Anderson, Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1892, p. 12; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlii. 1892, p. 854; op. cit. 1894, xliv. 
p. 79; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 110; Anderson, Herp. Arabia & 
Egypt, 1896, p. 112. 

Uromastix spinipes, part., Gray, Syn. Rept. Griffith’s An. King. ix. 1831, p. 61; Giinther, Proc. 
Zool. Soe. 1859, p. 470; Tristram, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 475. 

Uromastiz dispar, Heyden, Riippell’s Atlas nérdl. Afr., Rept. 1827, p. 5; Gray, Syn. Rept. 
Griffith’s An. King. ix. 1831, p. 61. 

Uromastiz temporalis, Valenc. Compt. Rend. Ac. Paris, xxxix. 1854, p. 89. 


Ear with enlarged conical scales at its anterior border. Body-scales more or less 
quadrangular, much larger than in the previous species, 160 round the middle of the 
body, including the ventrals; 80 to 90 ventrals between the inguinal and gular folds; 
no enlarged tubercles on the flanks or on the fore limb, but a few on the pelvic region. 
Tail strongly depressed, rather short, abruptly tapered, markedly spinose. 

Upper surface brownish yellow or olive above, spotted or reticulated with reddish 
brown or blackish. Under surface finely mottled with brownish olive, so much in 
some as almost to be uniformly dusky below, or broadly irregularly reticulated with 
yellow or olive-brown. ‘This latter coloration is generally associated with a greyish- 
yellow upper surface, spotted with reddish brown, and in specimens of this coloration 
there is sometimes a pale dorsal band margined with blackish. The upper surface of 
tail yellowish, generally much mottled with brown or even with greenish. 

$. Snout to vent 215 millim. ; vent to tip of tail 125 millim. 
* Ancient Egyptians, iii. p. 263. * Op. cit. i. pl. MR. Ixxxi. 
° Qp. cit. p. 38. 
$2 


“= 


152 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


This species is closely allied to U. egyptius, so much so that it has sometimes been 
mistaken for it. It is, however, distinguished from it by its decidedly larger scales and 
by the absence of tubercles on the flanks, although a few are present above the origin 
of the hind limbs. It appears to be the western representative of U. egyptius. 
M. E. Olivier, in his Catalogue of the Reptiles and Batrachia of Algeria, includes both 
species, but his description of the specimen referred to U. egyptius is not sufficiently 
explicit to carry conviction that the specimen was correctly determined. 

I have never met with this species in Egypt myself, but I have examined four 
specimens in the Frankfort Museum and another in the Paris Museum, all of which 
are said to have been obtained by Riippell in Egypt. Heyden states that the types of 
his U. dispar=U. acanthinurus, Bell, were obtained by Riippell in the desert between 
Dongola and Ambukol, where it is known as “ Dendene.” Now that this region is once 
more under the sway of Egypt, it is to be hoped that some British officer in the service 
of H.H. the Khedive wiil find sufficient leisure to make known its zoological riches. 

Olivier states that this species occurs throughout the stony parts of the Sahara, 
where it lives in fissures in the rocks and in holes in the ground. 


Synopsis of African Species. 


Caudal segments in contact with each other on the upper surface. 
I. Segments forming regular annuli above and below. 
Body-scales small. 


Ear without denticulations 6 0 6 6 «0 o 0 oo og =U aaa, nex. 
Body-scales larger. 
Ear denticulated in front . . . nc em OMon cus etleycdent 


II. Segments not forming regular annuli above and below. 
Body-scales almost granular. 
Enlarged tubercles on the flanks . . . . . . . . U. egyptius, Hasselq. & Linn. 
Body-scales well-defined. 
No enlarged tubercles on the flanks . . . . . . . U. acanthinurus, Bell. 


VARANUS. 1133 


VARANID. 
Varanide, Cope, Proc. Ac. Philad. 1864, p. 227. 


Body long, rounded; no dorsal crest. Head narrow, pointed, covered with small 
polygonal scales. Tongue very long, bifid, retractile, sheathed at the base. Teeth 
dilated at base, adnate to the inner side of the jaws; no palatine teeth. Eyelids well 
developed. ar distinct. Nostril between the eye and the snout. Limbs strong. 
Scales arranged transversely, small, roundish, juxtaposed, each surrounded by a small 
circular fold of granules; ventrals squarish. ‘ail long. Rudimentary preanal pores 
occasionally present !. 


The osteological features of this family, according to Cope and Boulenger ?, are a 
single, long, narrow premaxillary; coalesced nasals; two frontals; a single parietal ; 
a supraorbital bone ; postorbital arch incomplete; a bony postfronto-squamosal arch ; 
widely separated pterygoids and palatines ; infraorbital fossa bounded by the pterygoid, 
palatine, and transverse bone, the maxillary being excluded. No dermal cranial 
ossifications. Clavicle slender ; interclavicle anchor-shaped. 

It is represented by a single genus. 


VARANUS. 
Varanus, Merrem, Tent. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 58. 


Daudin included the two lizards V. griseus and V. niloticus in the genus 
Tupinambis, to which he also referred the so-called sauwvegardes of the New World. 
Maria Sybilla Marien, as pointed out by Cuvier, was the first to use the term sauvegarde, 
but she was careful to state that she could not explain how it had come to be applied 
to these lizards. Seba either invented the explanation that the feyu-guacgu and its 
allies were called sauvegardes because they uttered a whistling sound as a warning to 
man of the approach of crocodiles and caimans, or he had learned it from some 
traveller who had wished to explain the term. It is possible that the teyu-quacu may 
utter the foregoing sound of alarm when it sees one of these saurians approaching 
it, but thatit does so for the reason assigned is absurd. Unfortunately the cognate term 
“ Monitor” has been applied to the two Egyptian lizards, from their having been at 
first associated by Daudin with the varanoid-like Teiid@. It is needless to say that 
this term, as applied to them, is equally misleading. 


' Prog. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 643. 
* Ann, & Mag. N. H. (5) xiv. 1884, p. 120; Cat. Liz. B. M. ii. 1885, p. 303. 


134 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


VARANUS GRISEUS, Daud. (Plate XVI.) 


Monitor terrestre de Egypte, Cuy. Rég. An. ii. 1817, p. 25. 

Tupinambis griseus, Daud. Rept. viii. 1803, p. 352. 

Varanus scincus, Merr. Tent. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 59; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil. sér.) iv. 
no. 7, 1862, p. 26. 

Monitor scincus, Licht. Doub]. Berl. Mus. 1828, pp. 91 & 107; Schlegel, Abbild. 1837-44, p. 69. 

Psammosaurus griseus, Fitz. Neue Class. Rept. 1826, p. 50; Riippell, Mus. Senck. i. 1845, 
p- 801; Eichw. Nouv. Mém. Soc. Nat. Mose. ix. 1851, p. 416. 

Tupinambis arenarius, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. Descr. de ? Egypte, Hist. Nat. i.? 1827, p. 128, pl. in. 
fig. 2 et pl. vi. figs. 14, 15. 

Psammosaurus caspius, Bichw. Zool. Spec. iii. 1831, p. 190; Faun. Casp.-Cauc. 1842, p. 60, 
pls. vii.ix.; Blanford, Eastern Persia, 11. 1876, p. 359. 

Monitor (Psammosaurus) scincus, Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. King. ix. 1831, p. 27. 

Varanus arenarius, Dum. & Bib. iii. 1836, p. 471; Guichenot, Explor. Sc. Alg., Sc. Phys. Zool. v. 
1850, p. 6; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; De Filippi, Viagg. Pers. 1865, p. 352; Gasco, 
Viagg. in Kgitto, pt. 11. 1876, p. 105. 

Psammosaurus arenarius, Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. ed Anfibi Mar Rosso, 1886, p. 26. 

Psammosaurus scincus, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 165; Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H.1i. 1838, 
p- 892; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxiv. 1855, p. 715; Theobald, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 
Xxxvii. 1868, extra no. p. 20; Jerdon, Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1870, p. 70; Anderson, Journ. 
As. Soc. Beng. xl. 1871, p. 30; Blanford, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 677; Tristram, Fauna 
West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 148; Boettger, Kobelt’s Reiseerin. Alg. u. Tunis, 1885, 
p. 465. 

Varanus arenaceus, Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 204. 

Varanus ornatus (non Daud.; non Gray), Carlleyle, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxxviii. pt. 1. 1869, 
p. 192. 

Monitor griseus, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1870, p. 109. 

Varanus (Psammosaurus) arenarius, Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mose. 1879, no. 3, p. 40. 

Varanus griseus, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. ii. 1885, p. 806; Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., Zool. v. 1889, 
p- 99; Fauna Brit. Ind., Rept. 1890, p. 163; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 121; Boettger, 
Zool. Jahrb. iii. 1888, p. 904; Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 49; Anderson, Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1895, p. 636; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 84, 101; Zander, Zool. Garten, xxxvi. 
1895, p. 298; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliv. 1894, p. 79; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. 
Rom. Zool. v. 1896, p. 46. 


1 ¢. Suez. 

1 g. Desert N.E. of Cairo. 

1 9. Gizeh Desert. 

19. Telecel Amarna. Prof. W.M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 
1 g andl juv. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain Penton, D.S.O. 
2 gand2¢. Suakin. 

19. Tokar. 


Teeth acute, compressed. Snout slightly depressed at the tip. Canthus rostralis 
moderately defined. Nostril oblique, rather large and crescentic, close to the eye, its 


Pl. XVI. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


RAN 


SCS 
esis 


\3 
ee 


VARANUS GRISEUS. 


¢, Suburbs of Cairo. 


VARANUS GRISEUS. 135 


distance from the end of the snout being about four times greater than the interval 
between it and the eye. Tail rounded at the base, slightly compressed posteriorly ; no 
dorsal ridge. Digits rather short; claws strong and curved. Scales on the upper 
surface of the head, including the supraoculars, very small, juxtaposed, smooth, 
generally hexagonal. Scales on the body and limbs small, rounded or oblong, 
sometimes feebly keeled, larger than ventrals, those on the sides of the neck generally 
conical; ventrals smooth, 110-125 between the fold of the neck to the groin. Caudal 
scales small, more or less keeled above and below. 

General colour sandy yellow, with narrow brownish longitudinal lines varying in 
intensity along the side of the neck, and similarly coloured bands or lines across the 
back and tail, becoming lost in some adults towards the tip; the upper surface of the 
body sometimes with yellow spots. The young is generally pale rufous yellow above, 
with six broad deep black cross-bands on the back, each prolonged on to the sides as 
two curved lines. A narrow black line from the eye over the ear to the sides of the 
neck, another from before and behind the eye along the neck to the front dorsal cross- 
band; two faint interrupted lines below the ear to the shoulder; a few narrow blackish 
lines and spots on the snout, on the sides of the head before the eye, and also on the 
lower jaw. The areas between the black dorsal bands are marked with yellow spots 
arranged transversely, sometimes forming bands, one in the centre, between two black 
bands, and one margining each black band. From behind the limbs to the tip of the 
tail there may be as many as 28 deep black bands, each about half as narrow as the 
pale intervening interspaces, but not passing on to the under surface of the tail. ‘The 
rings of colour on the tail are subject to considerable variation. In North Africa I 
have never observed fewer than 19, whereas at Karachi they sometimes fall as low as 
8, at Agra to 12, and in Afghanistan and Bushire to 15. The limbs are marbled with 
yellow areas, the darker interspaces finely dotted with black. Underparts pale yellow. 

It attains to about four feet in length. 

This lizard does not occur on the alluvium of Egypt as a rule, but confines itself to 
the desert wadis and khors supporting a sparse vegetation, and to plains, like that 
at Suakin, covered more or less with grass and shrubs. In such localities it finds 
an abundant supply of food in the small rodents and lizards that frequent them. 
Along the banks of the Nile where the desert approaches the river it is said to eat 
the eggs of the crocodile ; and judging by the avidity and dexterity with which it 
swallows fowl’s eggs in confinement, without breaking them, it is probable that it is 
not only destructive to crocodile’s eggs but also to those of birds and other reptiles. 
Dr. A. Zander says that the strength of its digestive powers is marvellous, as although 
the specimens he kept in confinement swallowed all animals entire, he never found the 
remains of bones among their excreta, but only traces of feathers. I have represented 
this lizard in the attitude it assumes when alarmed and on the defensive. The 
head is raised, the mouth is held open in a menacing manner, showing the deep purple- 


136 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


black lining of the back part of the mouth, the throat is puffed out, and the body 
becomes greatly expanded by the inflation of the lungs. The tail is curved, in the 
form of the letter S, to the side away from the danger threatening it; and if it is still 
nearer approached while in this attitude, the chest is contracted, the mouth closes, and 
the air rushes out with a hissing sound, and a smart blow is delivered by the tail with 
oreat rapidity. Itruns with great alacrity, its body well raised from the ground. From 
the strong character of its claws, more especially those on its fore feet, it is evidently 
addicted to burrowing, but whether it makes its own burrows or merely inhabits those 
made by other animals is not known; indeed we possess very little reliable information 
regarding the habits of the two species of this genus found in Egypt, in their wild 
state. Pococke? says it frequents caverns, where it sleeps during the winter. 

This species is distributed over the Northern Sahara from Western Algeria to Egypt, 
and southwards along the Nile valley to Sennaar, and throughout the Eastern Sudan 
to the shores of the Red Sea. It is found in Southern Syria, apparently throughout 
Persia (Caspian Province), Afghanistan, and N.W. India. 

It is known to the Arabs as the waral of the land or of the desert, us)! Sg = 
waral el ard, and j=l J, = waral el jibal. 

Sonnini is responsible for the statement that this lizard is represented on the 
monuments, but he does not record on what monuments he had observed it. I have 
not met with any figures of it myself, but it is quite possible that it may occur in 
some of the scenes depicted on the tomb of Tih. 

The Egyptians did not regard it as a sacred animal, although they may have held it 
in high respect in consequence of its reputation as a destroyer of the eggs of the 
crocodile. 

Herodotus, in his account of the animals of Libya, mentioned a lizard which he 
called the “crocodile of the land.” Prospero Alpini4 speaks of the “scincus or 
land crocodile”; but he says that the Scincus of his day was not the lizard of that 
name described by the ancients, which was probably this species, V. griseus, a cubit 
long, like a crocodile, with slightly rounded scales, lighter in colour, and with a 
thinner skin. Cuvier after much research arrived at the same opinion. Maillet also 
says there is a species which strongly resembles the crocodile ; it is what the ancients 
called “ Crocodile de terre, dont la chair des reins est si renommée dans l’Empire de 
Vénus” >. 

We are indebted to Abd-Allatif® (1161-1231 a.p.) for the native name of this lizard. 
He says: ‘On pourroit dire que le crocodile est le waral aquatique; et le waral, le 
crocodile de terre”; and he adds, ‘“‘le waral habite les montagnes,” that is the desert. 
Along with his account of the waral he also describes the scink, which he says “est 


1 Zool. Garten, xxxvi. 1895, p. 298. S 1D Oe 
° Bk. iv. cap. 192. * Op. cit. Lib. iv. cap. 5, pp. 215-216. 


> Op. cit. p. 36*. ® Relation de l’Egypte, transl. by 8. de Sacy, 1810, p. 142. 


VARANUS GRISEUS. 137 


une espéce de waral, ou plutdt c’est le waral lui-méme, si ce n’est quil a la queue 
courte”’; and goes on to say “il faut regarder le scinque comme constituant une espéce 
particuliére,” because, among other reasons, it differed from the waral in the places it 
inhabited, as it lived in the desert plains and in the water, and was found in the Nile. 
‘The aquatic habit attributed by Abd-Allatif to the scink suggests the next species, 
V. niloticus; but as he says that whereas the back of the waral is scaly and hard, that 
of the scink, on the contrary, is smooth and soft to the touch, he could hardly have had 
that species in view, more especially as he describes the scink as yellow and black. 
His description of the back and colour of the lizard suggests Scincus officinalis, and 
it is just possible that the aquatic habit attributed to the scink, which is as old as 
the days of Pliny (if V. niloticus was not the true scink), may have been suggested 
by the strongly-fringed digits of S. officinalis, which, at the present day, is known 
as the fish of the sand. 

The circumstance that the Greek historian speaks of this large land lizard as the 
terrestrial crocodile, may probably have originated from the existence in his day of the 
fable believed in by Abd-Allatif, and still current among the Arabs, that it is produced 
from the eggs of the crocodile. The belief was that the young when excluded from 
the egg either betook themselves to the Nile or to land, the former becoming crocodiles 
and the latter warals. 

This species is occasionally seen in the possession of conjurers, as it is supposed to 
be under the influence of music; but these men take the cruel precaution to break off 
its teeth to prevent it biting, as it is of a fierce disposition. 

The natives, according to Sonnini, say that it sucks the milk from sheep and goats; 
but this is not the only lizard to which this fable is attached, as Scincus schneideri, 
likewise, is known as the milker of sheep. A similar habit is ascribed by the natives 
of India to the common snake Zamenis mucosus, which is said to suck cows. ‘This 
lizard is also reported when bitten by a snake to search for a particular plant, which it 
eats as an antidote to the poison. 


138 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


VARANUS OCELLATUS, Heyden. (Plate XVII.) 


Varanus ocellatus, Heyden, Riippell’s Atlas nordl. Afr. 1827, pp. 21-24, pl. 6; Lefebvre, Abyss. 
Zool. vi. 1845-50, p. 197; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; Blanford, Abyss. 1870, 
p: 445 ; Gasco, Viagg. Egitto, pt. 11.1876, p. 106; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. ii. 1885, p. 308; Ann. 
Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 550; op. cit. ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvil.) 1896, p. 17, 
1897, p. 278; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 534; op. cit. 1896, p. 215; Boettger, Kat. Rept. 
Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 69; Tornier, Thierm. O.-Afr. Rept. 1896, p. 38. 

Monitor ocellatus, part., Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. King. ix, 1831, p. 25; Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 
1845, p. 301; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1870, p. 109. 

Empagusia ocellata, part., Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1. 1838, p. 3938. 

Varanus albigularis, Boettger, Zool. Anz. 1893, pp. 115, 132. 

Varanus microstictus, Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 72. 


Teeth stout, conical. Snout depressed at its tip; canthus rostralis rounded; nostril 
oblique, rather large, twice as far from the end of the snout as from the eye. Tail 
more or less rounded at the base, posteriorly compressed, with a double-edged dorsal 
ridge, slightly shorter or longer than the body and head. Digits short and stout. 
Scales on the head rather large, markedly so on the forehead, smallest on the supra- 
ocular region. Scales in 90-95 rows across the middle of the body, large, flat, smooth, 
elongately oval, rounded or pear-shaped, largest on the neck, where they are larger 
than the scales on the forehead. Skin of body thrown into marked transverse and 
oblique furrows. Ventrals large, smooth, 68 to 75 transverse rows from the collar to 
the inguinal fold. Caudal scales more or less keeled, more especially on the dorsal 
surface, in 102-124 verticils. 

In life, according to Heyden, the whole upper surface is brownish grey. Six, 
seldom eight, large, oval, clear spots on the back, each margined with a dark ring, 13 
or 14 in each longitudinal row, and each spot enclosing about four scales. Upper 
surface of the tail more or less banded with brown. The under surface greyish yellow. 
The sides of the belly marked with the beginning of dark bands, which become 
stronger above. Eyes reddish yellow; pupil black. 

In an adult from Anseba valley, the yellow spots are obscurely indicated and the 
general colour of the upper surface is yellowish brown marked with blackish spots, 
the dark bands on the sides of the belly feebly marked. A broad brown band, the 
breadth of the temporal area, is prolonged backwards along the side of the neck to the 
shoulder, and obscurely on to the fore limb, and another but narrow similarly coloured 
band runs from the upper margin of the ear backwards, separated from the former by 
a yellowish interspace. Under surface rather rich gamboge-yellow. 

‘The band that passes on to the limb seems to be the equivalent of the well-defined 
band of V. albigularis that bends abruptly forwards on to the pectoral area, 

Snout to vent 375 millim.; tail 367 millim. 


Pl. XVII. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


Mt 


2 i 
hh (ye 


VARANUS OCELLATUS. 


 Anseba Valley, Abyssinia. 


VARANUS OCELLATUS. 139 


This is a terrestrial lizard with the habits of V. griseus, and, according to Heyden, it 
burrows and lives on other lizards and beetles. 

Mr. Blanford obtained his specimen under a rock, in rather open ground, in the 
Anseba valley. 

It is known only from Kordofan and Abyssinia. 

Heyden founded the species on a specimen obtained by Riippell at Kordofan, and, 
according to Prof. Boettger, it was presented to the Frankfort Museum in 1827. In 
the following year a Varanus from Abyssinia was also presented by Dr. Riippell. 
Dr. J. E. Gray, in his Synopsis of Reptiles in Griffith’s ‘Animal Kingdom,’ gave a list of 
the species of Varanide he had noted in the different museums of Europe, and among 
them he enumerates Monitor ocellatus, Heyden, as existing in the Frankfort Museum ; 
but, strange to say, he does not mention Kordofan as the locality of the species, but 
adds to his short diagnosis of it ‘“‘ Dongola, Senegal. Mus. Riippell.” No specimen 
from Dongola, on the Nile, appears either in Ruppell’s or in Prof. Boettger’s Catalogues 
of the Reptilia in the Frankfort Museum. Is it possible that the Abyssinian Varanus 
presented, in 1828, by Rtippell may have come from the Dongola in Abyssinia, 
mentioned by Mr. Blanford, and that the specimen may have once borne a label to 
that effect? What is certain is that V. ocellatus was from Kordofan, and that no 
specimen of the species has ever been recorded from Senegal. 

Gray, in 1838, referred /. ocellatus to his genus Hmpagusia, which he characterized 
as follows :—‘ Nostrils oblong, rather in the front of the muzzle. ‘Tail (shorter than 
the body and head) tapering, roundish, with a double-edged keel above ; toes short, 
strong, subequal; teeth rounded; scales larger.” When he wrote, V. albigularis, 
Daud., and /. exanthematicus, Bosc, were unrepresented in the Frankfort Museum, as 
neither of them appeared in Riippell’s Catalogue, and, moreover, Professor Boettger 
states that the only specimen of the former in the Museum was received in 1893, and 
that of the latter in 1581. The position of the nostril assigned to Empagusia is in no 
way applicable to the nostril of V. ocel/atus, but applies to that of V. exanthematicus ; 
and it is probable that this may account for Gray having given Senegal as a locality 
for his V. ocellatus, which was not the species described under that name by Heyden. 

Riippell, when he catalogued the specimens in the Frankfort Museum, regarded the 
Abyssinian Varanus as distinct from V. ocellatus, and named it V. microstictus, but 
did not describe it. 

On a visit to the Frankfort Museum some years ago, I wrote out the following 
description of the specimen :—‘‘Scales on the upper surface of the neck much larger 
than on any other part of the body, the largest measuring fully 3 millim. in transverse 
diameter, and even 4 millim. in length. They are much larger than the scales on the 
occiput, the scales on the head generally being even less than half the size of the 
nuchal scales, but the flat tessellated scales on the middle of the head between the eyes 
are large. ‘The scales on the middle of the back are somewhat smaller than those 

T 2 


140 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


external to them, and there are from 3 to 6 such rows. ‘The distance between the 
lower anterior border of the nostril to the end of the snout equals the distance between 
the former point and the posterior angle of the eye. Canthus rostralis, sharp and well 
defined, and the top of the head from the posterior border of the orbit forwards 
elongately triangular. The anterior border of the eye to the snout equals the distance 
between the aforementioned point and the upper border of the ear. ‘The third 
finger is longer than the fourth, the reverse of what occurs in V. griseus, but the 
same as prevails in V. ocellatus. Seventy to seventy-five transverse rows of scales. 
Tail round at the base, but the remainder more or less compressed, with a double- 
edged dorsal ridge. ‘The colour is uniform olive-yellow above, with some yellow spots 
on the back, somewhat transverse 1n position, but obscure.” 

This specimen has been fully described by Prof. Boettger in his Catalogue; but I 
am indebted to him for some further particulars regarding the types of V. ocellatus 
and V. microstictus. 

In the British Museum there is a Varanus from Kordofan presented by Dr. Riippell, 
besides the specimen from the Anseba valley, Abyssinia, obtained by Mr. Blanford. 
These two lizards are unquestionably specifically identical. The first is a stuffed 
specimen, whilst the latter is preserved in alcohol. Both have exactly the same kind 
of scales. ‘Those on the forehead and front of the snout are large, and the scales on 
the back of the neck are considerably larger than any of the other scales of the body. 
The ventrals are large. The digits are short and stout. ‘The tail is compressed, with a 
double-edged dorsal ridge. In the case of the stuffed Kordofan specimen the nostril 
is a little nearer the end of the snout than in the Abyssinian specimen in alcohol, 
but this is due to the shrivelling up of the fleshy end of the snout. In the latter the 
nostril is about twice as distant from the end of the snout as it is from the eye, and in 
the former about 14 times. ‘This is the only point in which they are not perfectly 
alike, but I believe it to be satisfactorily explained by the difference in the methods 
of their preservation. Both conform to Heyden’s description of V. ocellatus and to 
Prof. Boettger’s account of V. microstictus. 


VarANvs NiLoticus, Hasselq. & Linn. (Plate XVIII.) 


Le Monitor du Nil ou Ouaran, Cuy. Reg. An. 11. 1817, p. 25. 

Le Monitor du Congo, Cuv. 1. c. p. 25. 

Lacerta nilotica, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, p. 311; Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. 1766, p. 369; 
Forskal, Deser. An. 1775, p. 13. 

Lacerta capensis, Sparrmann, Resa Goda Hop. 1783, p. 749. 

Scincus niloticus, Schn. Hist. Amph. ii. 1801, p. 195. 

Tupinambis elegans, part., Daud. Rept. 11. 1803, p. 36. 

Tupinambis stellatus, Daud. 1. c. p. 59, pl. xxxi. 

Tupinambis niloticus, part., Daud. 1. c. p. 51; Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Descr. de l’Hzypte, Hist. Nat. 
?1827, p. 121, pl. 8. fig. 1. 


Pl. XVIII. 


ypt. 


Lo 
5 


Reptiles of E 


VARANUS NILOTICUS. 


¢, Luxor. 


ayy 
) 
i 
' 
‘ny 
‘if 
yi 
ay 
ni’ 
} , 
t 
‘ - 
fi ie 
et 
+ f 
f ' ' 
' 


- : . : 
Y= = oe tweety. 


VARANUS NILOTICUS. 141 


Tupinambis ornatus, Daud. Ann. Mus. ii. 1803, p. 240, pl. xlviil. 

Monitor pulcher, Leach, Bowdich’s Mission to Ashantee, 1819, p. 493; Griffith’s An. King. ix. 
1831, p. 203, plate. 

Varanus elegans, part., Merr. Tent. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 58. 

Varanus ornatus, Merr. 1. c. p. 59. 

Polydedalus niloticus, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 164. 

Polydedalus capensis, Wagler, 1. c. p. 165. 

Monitor ornatus, Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. King. ix. 1831, p. 27. 

Varanus niloticus, Dum. & Bibr. iii. 1836, p. 476 ; Wiegm. Arch. f. Nat. 1837, 1. p. 228; A. Dum. 
Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 50; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; Steindach. Sitzb. 
Ak. Wien, lx. 1, 1870, p. 330; Gasco, Viagg. Egitto, pt. ii. 1876, p. 106; Blgr. Cat. Rept. 
B. M. ii. 1885, p. 817; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvii.) 1896, p. 17; id. op. 
cit. 1897, p. 277 ; Mocquard, Cent. Soc. Philomathique, 1888, p. 115*; Anderson, Herpet. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 101; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 71. 

Varanus capensis, Wiegm. Arch. f. Nat. 1837, ii. p. 228. 

Monitor niloticus, Licht. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1823, p. 107; Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. i. 1838, p. 393 ; 
Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p.11; Duvernoy, Rept. Cuv. Rég. An. 1836-46, pl. x. bis fig. 1; 
Lefebvre, Voy. Abyss. iv. 1845-50, p. 196; Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 301; Matschie, 
Zool. Jahrb. v. 1891, Abth. f. Syst. p. 612; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 87; Ann. 
& Mag. N. H. (6) xvii. 1896, p. 264. 

Monitor elegans, Schleg. Abbild. 1837-44, p. 75. 

Monitor saurus, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1870, p. 109. 

Varanus saurus, Stejneger, Smithsonian Inst. no. 970, 1893, p. 717. 


2h juv. Luxor. 


Anterior teeth small, sharply pointed, those behind them rather large and conical. 
Snout depressed at its extremity ; canthus rostralis well defined. Nostril small, round, 
situated nearly midway between the end of the snout and the eye, but nearer to the 
latter than to the former. Tail much compressed, with a well-defined dorsal ridge. 
Digits moderately long. Scales on the upper surface of the head of moderate size, 
smallest on the temporal region and subequal on the supraocular region. Scales 
on the body and limbs small, oval, or pear-shaped ; caudal scales keeled ; ventrals 
smooth, 75 to 100 between the gular and unguinal folds. 

In the young and even in the half-grown the body is blackish above. The upper 
surface of the head with fine wavy transverse yellowish lines, and the sides, from the 
snout to the ear, marked by vertical black spots or bars broken up with yellowish. A 
pale yellow band from the eye to the ear, with a black band above it directed back- 
wards to the mesial line of the neck, where it joins with its fellow of the opposite side, 
and a number of similar bands behind it with intervening pale yellow lines forming 
V-shaped markings. Eight narrow, yellow, transverse bands across the back, always 
more or less broken up with black and resolved in some on the sides into yellowish 
spots or ocelli with black centres, and prolonged on to the sides of the tail, where other 
larger but similar spots appear below and above them, the combined spots being 


142 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


arranged in transverse series with dark interspaces; black bands pass down to the 
belly from the sides and meet on the mesial line below, and similar lines occur on the 
under surface of the neck and on the limbs, the yellowish intervening areas having 
many black spots. ‘The upper surface of the limbs black, with yellowish spots, as on 
the sides. General colour of the under surface yellowish. In the adult the markings 
of the young become very obscure. The general colour is olive brownish above with 
dark reticulations, the yellow spots of the body and limbs and the dark markings of 
the belly and limbs being more or less present. 

It attains to 170 centimetres or more in length. Although more or less aquatic in 
its habits it is frequently seen hunting for its food along the banks of the Nile, and is 
met with in the irrigated fields, but never in the desert. Itis carnivorous in its habits, 
and is said to live largely on fish, to pursue the young of the crocodile, and also to eat 
the eggs of that animal. Little reliable information, however, has yet been placed on 
record regarding the habits of this lizard. From the strongly carnivorous instinct 
which it manifests in confinement, eating rats and mice with avidity, it probably preys 
on the field-rat, Zsomys, the burrows of which are so plentiful along the banks of the 
river and canals, and may likewise devour such lizards as Mabuia quinqueteniata and 
Chalcides ocellatus, which are found in similar situations. When surprised on the 
banks of the river it at once betakes itself to the water. It appears to be more 
numerous in Upper than in Lower Egypt. It is distributed throughout Africa, except 
in the region to the west of the Nile and to the north of the Congo, Niger, and 
Senegal rivers. 

The native name of this lizard is os B) J, =varal el nahr, or waral of the river. 

In this species two slight preeanal eminences are occasionally present in both sexes, 
immediately before the cloacal opening, occupying the position of the preanal pores of 
the other lizards. They are present in specimens from different parts of Africa, e.g. the 
island of Lagos, Port Elizabeth, Lake Nyassa, Condo (Quanza), Boluma (Senegambia), 
Lamu (E. Africa), and Ashantiland. The smallest of all the specimens in the British 
Museum, from the Quanza, is very instructive. The apical pores of the scales anterior 
to the cloacal opening are larger than in any other part of the body, and one or two 
are larger than the others immediately around them. ‘These enlarged pores are 
restricted to the centre of each preeanal eminence, but no one is more differentiated 
than another. On the other hand, in a specimen from Port Elizabeth there is a 
well-developed pore on each side of the mesial line, with some small pores around it. 
Much the same condition is occasionally met with in V. griseus. 


Pl. XIX. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


LATASTIA LONGICAUDATA. 


Fig. 1 ¢, Figs. 2 & 3 9, Suakin. 


LATASTIA LONGICAUDATA. 143 


LACERTID. 


LATASTIA. 
Latastia, Bedriaga, Ann. Mus. Ciy. Genova, xx. 1884, p. 307. 


““ Head-shields normal. Nostril pierced between two or three nasals and the first 
upper labial. Lower eyelid scaly. Collar well marked. Dorsal scales juxtaposed 
or imbricate; ventral shields quadrangular, feebly imbricate, smooth. Digits sub- 
cylindrical, with keeled lamellie inferiorly. Femoral pores. Tail long, cylindrical.”— 
Boulenger. 


LATASTIA LONGICAUDATA, Reuss. (Plate XIX.) 


Lacerta longicaudata, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 29. 

Lacerta (Acanthodactylus) longicaudata, Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 304. 

Lacerta samharica, Blauf. Zool. Abyss. 1870, p. 449, fig. head. 

Lacerta sturti, Blanf. op. cit. p. 452, fig. head. 

Eremias revoili, Vaill. Miss. Révoil aux Pays Comalis, Rept. 1882, p. 20, pl. iii. fig. 2. 

Latastia doriai, Bedr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, xx. 1884, p. 313. 

Latastia samharica, Bedr. |. c. p. 319. 

Latastia longicaudata, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 55; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, 
xi. (xxxil.) 1891, p.7; Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) xvi. 1895, p. 168; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, 
ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 551; op. cit. ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvil.) 1896, p. 17; Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1896, p. 215; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvii.) 1897, p. 278; Mocquard, Mém. 
Soc. Philom. Cent. 1888, p. 117*; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 89; Giinther, 
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 87; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 102. 


4 g and2 9. Suakin, Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton. 
5 6 and2 2. Suakin. 
1 3g. Akik, about 80 miles south of Suakin. 
1. Tokar, about 50 __,, =p bp 
36,5 9,and2juv. Durrur, 16 miles north of Suakin. Major-General A. Hunter, D.S.O. 


Head rather elongate and pointed; the distance between the anterior angle of the 
eye to the tip of the snout equals the interval between the posterior angle of the eye 
and the ear; ear vertical, its height equalling the long diameter of the eye, not 
denticulated ; nostril defined by the first labial, a supranasal, and two postnasals ; 
supranasals form a broad suture behind the rostral; frontonasal broader than long ; 
prefrontal suture almost as long as that of the supranasals ; frontal narrow posteriorly 
and grooved throughout its length; two large supraoculars separated from the pre- 


frontals and parietals by groups of small scales and from the superciliaries by a line of 


144 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


granules; interparietal much longer than broad, generally in contact with the 
occipital, but occasionally separated from it by an interposed small shield; occipital 
small, half the size of the interparietal; parietals large, with a band-like shield 
along their outer borders, and a small curved shield anterior to and above the ear ; 
temporal scales granular, smooth or feebly keeled; 10 to 15 upper labials, generally 
the seventh reaches the eye, sometimes the eighth, rarely the sixth or ninth. Chin- 
shields large, the three pair in contact. Gular scales small, round, and smooth. 
Collar-plates large, from 8 to 12. Body-scales small, granular, increasing in size 
behind the shoulder, juxtaposed, obtusely keeled, and in transverse series; 53 to 68 
scales round the middle of the back, not counting the ventrals ; the latter in 6 transverse 
and in 27 to 33 longitudinal series from the collar to the preanal region, the two 
central rows the narrowest. A single large preeanal plate in the male, absent in the 
female. Outside of the fore limb covered with a line of large broad scutes; the 
front of the thigh and the under surface of the labial portion of the limb with 
similar plates. The fore limb reaches to the anterior angle of the eye and even to the 
nostril, and the hind limb to the collar or to near the ear. 10 to 15 femoral pores on 
each side. Tail broader than deep at the base, especially in the male, variable in 
length, more than twice, sometimes more than thrice, as long as the body and head ; 
upper caudal scales strongly keeled, smooth below. 

Olive-brown above, head-shields variegated with reddish brown. A rich dark- 
brown narrow vertebral line from the occiput to the base of the tail, and three 
rich reddish, longitudinal, but more or less interrupted bands external to it, marked 
at intervals with brown spots and forming vertical brownish bars on the sides 
of the body and neck, enclosing bluish and yellow interspaces, which assume the 
form of ocelli. Sides of the head also more or less marked with vertical bars, and 
likewise the upper labials. Sides of the tail yellowish, with a dusky longitudinal 
band. Under surface white. Males much more brilliantly coloured than the females. 

Abnormal conditions sometimes exist in the formation of the nostril. Thus in 
one specimen it is defined on the right side of the head by an anterior nasal, the supra- 
nasal, two postnasals, and the second labial, and on the left side by the first labial, 
two postnasals, and the supranasal. On both sides of the head there is a small shield 
between the superior postnasal and the frontonasal and in contact with the anterior 
loreal, prefrontal, and supranasal. On the left side a small shield lies below the 
supplementary shield. In this specimen also there is a further departure from the 
usual condition of the head-shields, as there is a small shield on either side of the 
hinder end of the interparietal : moreover, it is the only individual in which the ninth 
labial is the subocular—a condition brought about by the formation of an additional 
labial by lateral partition of the rostral. In another specimen, by the formation of 
an additional anterior nasal at the expense of the supranasal, the nostril is defined 
by five shields. 


LATASTIA LONGICAUDATA. 145 


The largest male from the Suakin and Tokar district measured 110 millim. from 
snout to vent, and the largest female 106 millim. 

This species has the habits of an Hremias, and is found among the sparse grassy 
vegetation of the littoral plain at Durrur, Suakin, Tokar, and Akik, in much the same 
conditions that L. newmann?, Matschie, is found on the plain at Lahej, on the opposite 
coast, in the neighbourhood of Aden. 

It has been recorded by Mr. Blanford from the littoral plain at Annesley Bay, and 
by Mr. Boulenger from the island of Dissei, at the mouth of the Bay. Since Professor 
Vaillant’s and M. Mocquard’s record of its occurrence in Somaliland, the collections of 
reptiles made of recent years in Abyssinia, Shoa, Western and Southern Somaliland, and 
British East Africa, by various explorers, further prove it to have a wide distribution 
over the eastern promontory of the continent, as it has been found between Obbia and 
Berbera, near Berbera, to the west of the Juba river, and at Fuladoya, near Mount Kenia; 
also at Nguruman, and between Kilima-njaro and Lake Victoria Nyanza, by Mr. Oscar 
Neumann. It thus ranges in Africa from about 20° N. lat. to 4°S. of the Equator; but 
as the littoral plain of the Red Sea extends a long way beyond Durrur, it has probably 
a considerably more extended range to the north than is at present assigned to it. 
The types of this species are stated by Reuss to have been obtained by Riippell, at 
Tor, in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and when he described them he had others before 
him collected by Riippell in Abyssinia. It has never been recorded from Asia since 
Reuss’s day. ; 

The ventrals are wonderfully uniform in all of the specimens from the Suakin district, 
as six are invariably present across the middle of the belly ; but variation exists in the 
number of ventrals between the collar and the preanal region, although not to any extent, 
as the lowest number recorded is 27 and the highest 33. The dorsal scales across the 
middle of the body vary from 54 to 68, and the collar-plates range from 8 to 14. Ina 
young specimen from Suakin there are only 9—9 upper labials ; but the intermediate 
numbers up to 13 are met with. Although the number of upper labials may be 
symmetrical on both sides of the head, it does not follow that the same shield is the 
subocular on the right and left of the head, as in 12 out of 23 specimens 
asymmetry prevails. In one specimen it is the 5th and the 6th, in another the 6th 
and 7th, im nine the 7th and 8th, and in one the 8th and 9th. Among these Suakin 
lizards there are never fewer than 10 femoral pores on each limb, but in two 13 occur 
asymmetrically associated either with 11 or 12, while in three 13 are present 
symmetrically. 

Two females obtained by Mr. Oscar Neumann at Neuruman and one of the same 
sex from E] Jeckar, the most southern known localities of its distribution, differ only 
slightly in their coloration from the Suakin lizards. The back is marked by longitudinal 
lines of brown spots, and the dark mesial line is very little, if at all, more defined than 
those external to it. 


146 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Besides L. neumanni (Matschie)* from Arabia, other species are known; but one of 
them, L. boscw, Bedriaga 2, is doubtfully distinct from the present species. 4. carinata, 


Peters *, Z. spinalis, Peters 4. and L. hardeggeri, Steind.’, are found in the same region 
of Eastern Africa. 


S.B. Ges. naturf. Fr. Berlin, 1898, p. 30; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 643. 
Ann. Mus. Genova, xx. 1834, p. 322. 
Mon. Berl. Ak. 1874, p. 368, pl. fig. 1. * Mon. Berl. Ak. 1874, p. 369, pl. fig. 2. 


Ann. Hotmus. Wien, vi. 1891, p. 371, pl. xi. The ZL. heterolepis, Boettger, Zool. Anz. xvi. 1893, p. 115, 
from Somaliland, is identical with £. hardeggeri, Steind. 


2 


3 


5 


ACANTHODACTYLUS. 147 


ACANTHODACTYLUS'*. 
Acanthodactylus, Wiegm. Herpet. Mex. pt. i. 1834, p. 10. 


Nostril defined by the first labial and two nasals. Collar more or less present. No 
occipital shield. Digits with a strong lateral fringe and keeled plates below. Lower 
eyelid scaly. Dorsal scales rhomboidal, more or less carinate, imbricate or non-imbricate. 
Ventrals quadrangular, smooth, feebly imbricate. Tail more or less cylindrical. 
Femoral pores present. 


As pointed out by M. Lataste, A. scutellatus and A. cantoris are distinguished from 
all the other species by the presence of four well-defined rows of scales around the 
fingers, viz. a dorsal, a ventral, and two lateral rows, one to each side of a digit. The 
interno-lateral row is never fully developed in the other species, but I have observed 
the presence of a few small straggling scales occupying its position in vulgaris, 
micropholis, boskianus, schreiberi, and pardalis. 

In all the species of the genus there are only three rows of scales around the toes, 
viz. a dorsal, ventral, and one externo-lateral. It is this last row, composed of more 
or less sickle-shaped scales of varying strength, that constitutes the fringe; but 
the inner distal angle of each dorsal scale may be so developed as to constitute a 
denticulation, but never a true fringe. 


‘ Tt has been stated by Professor Gasco that two examples of Lacerta ocellata, Daud., were obtained by 
him near Alexandria. He referred them to a variety which he called lepida. It seems highly improbable, 
however, that Lacerta ocellata occurs in Egypt, and as Gasco did not distinguish between Eremias guttulata, 
Licht., and Z. rubropunctata, Licht., it is just possible that he may have mistaken an ocellated specimen of 
the former for Z. ocellata, Daud. Of course this is only guesswork; but so unlikely is it that the last- 
mentioned species should be found at Alexandria, that I feel compelled to suggest some explanation of how 
the error may haye arisen. 

He also records Psammodromus algirus, Linn., and says ‘this species, which abounds in Algeria and Spain, 
was collected by us only in the neighbourhood of Alexandria.” My impression is that in this case also we 
have an error of identification, and that Gasco had probably before him some species of Acanthodactylus. 

Professor Vaillant, in Révyoil’s ‘ Mission to Somaliland,’ mentions the occurrence of Vropidosaura algwva= 
P. algirug at a place called Darror. Through Professor Vaillant’s kind permission I have been enabled to 
compare Révoil’s specimen with one from Algeria, with which it fully agrees. The presence of P. algirus i 
Somaliland, if it really occurs there, is a very remarkable fact in distribution. It is noteworthy, however, 
that it has never been present in any other collection from Somaliland. 


148 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT, 


ACANTHODACTYLUS BOSKIANUS, Daud. (Plate XX.) 


Lacerta boskiana, Daud. Rept. iii. 1803, p. 188, pl. xxxvi. fig. 2; Licht. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1823, 
p- 100; Aud. Deser. de l’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ?1829, p. 173, Suppl. pl. i. figs. 91 & 92. 

Lacerta aspera, Aud. op. cit. p. 174, Suppl. pl. 1. fig. 10. 

Acanthodactylus boskianus, Wiegm. Herp. Mex. 1834, pt. i. p. 10; Dum. & Bibr. v. 1839, p. 278; 
Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 88; Gervais, Ann. Se. Nat. (3) x. 1848, p.204; Strauch, Mém. 
Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p.38; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; op. cit. 
1880, p. 308; Blanford, Zool. Abyss. 1870, p. 456; Gasco, Viagg. in Kgitto, pt. 1. 1876, p. 107; 
Boulenger, Bull. Soe. Zool. France, 1878, p. 182; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 744, pl. Ixiv. fig. 2; 
Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 59; Trans. Zool. Soe. xiii. 1891, p. 129; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, 
ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 551; Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. f. Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878, p. 93; 
Eimer, Arch. f. Nat. 1881, p. 406, pl. xv. fig. 26; Boettger, part., Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 
1879-80, p. 182; Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 89; Reichenow, Sitz.-Bericht Ges. naturf. 
Fr. Berl. 1883, p. 149; Lataste, part., Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, ii. (xxii.) 1885, p. 496; 
Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. ed Anfibi Mar Rosso, 1886, p. 29; Pfeffer, Jahrb. Hamb. Wissensch. 
Anst. vi. 1889, p.6; Hart, Fauna & Flora of Sinai, &c. 1891, p. 210; Anderson, Proe. Zool. 
Soc. 1892, p. 14; op. cit. 1895, p. 645; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 34 et p. 102; 
Konig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, p. 18; Matschie, Ges. nat. Fr. Berl. 1893, p. 30 ; 
Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 111; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, no. 167, ix. 
1894, p. 7; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliii. 1894, p. 359; op. cit. xliv. 1895, p. 82. 

Scapteira inequalis, Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H. i. 1888, p. 280. 

Acanthodactylus boschianus, Bonap. Icon. Fauna Ital. 1832-42. 

Lacerta (Acanthodactylus) boskiana, Riippell, Mus. Senck. ni. 1843, p. 304. 


8 gandd ?. Banks of Freshwater Canal, Suez. 

4 gand1 ¢. Abukir. 

6 g and5 ?. Ramleh. 

17 g and9 ?. Alexandria (suburbs). 

19. Maryut District. 

3g and1 2. Cairo suburbs. Dr. Walter Innes. 

1g. Plain of Kafr Gamus. 

13 g,12 2, and 2juv. Margin of desert, Gizeh Pyramids. 

9 g and12 9. Plain of Tel el Amarna. Prof. W. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 
8 g,42, and] juv. Margin of desert, Luxor. 

12. Oasis of Dakhel. Major H. 8. Lyons, R.E. 

6 g and3@. Assuan. 

ljuv. 2. Suakin. Colonel Sir Charles Holled Smith, C.B., K.C.M.G. 
36,12, and1juv. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton. 

11 g andll @. Plain of Suakin. 

]juv. Tokar. 


Snout short, obtusely pointed, more so in some than in others. Four supraoculars 
separated from the superciliaries by one line of granules; first and fourth entire, or 
broken up either into separate pieces or into granules. Subocular broadly excluded 


Ibs 2O%, 


les of Egypt. 


epti 


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sys 


aa 


ACANTHODACTYLUS BOSKIANUS 


izeh, 


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1g, 4 juy., 


Fi 


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na 


g-3 9, Alexandr 


Fi 


, 


Figs. 1 & 2 ¢, Suakin 


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ACANTHODACTYLUS BOSKIANUS. 149 


from the labial margin by the fourth and fifth, and occasionally by the fifth and sixth 
labials. Ear denticulated in a varying degree. Temporal scales more or less elongate, 
in some examples obtusely keeled, in others smooth and conical. Dorsal scales small 
from the occiput to the shoulder, rhomboidal, imbricate, carinate, increasing in size at 
the shoulder, very much larger on the hinder part of the back, where they pass into the 
large scales on the base of the tail; 8 to 16 rows between the thighs. Thirty-five to 58 ! 
rows of scales round the middle of the body; ten rows of ventral plates, exceptionally 
twelve, broader than long, and in longitudinal and transverse series. Usually a preeanal 
plate with two or three smaller plates anterior to it, and also laterally, but sometimes 
all are more or less broken up. Limbs well developed, variable, the hind limb may 
reach as far as the eye or only to the shoulder. Digits on the fore and hind limbs 
covered with three rows of plates, viz. a dorsal, ventral, and externo-lateral, the latter 
forming a denticulated border stronger in some than in others, but always more 
developed on the outer edge of the toes, but shorter than their diameter. ‘ail 
generally more than twice the length of the body and head, covered above with strongly 
keeled scales, those on its under surface, at the base, being smooth or feebly keeled. 

The femoral pores vary from 16 to 32. 

The young has generally six narrow, white, longitudinal lines along the back and 
sides, arising from behind the ear and occiput, and separated from each other by five 
broad blackish bands; another similarly coloured band runs along the lower border of 
each of the outermost white bands. The black bands are generally more or less spotted 
with white, and are prolonged on to the tail. Occasionally a seventh white band is 
present along the mesial line of the back. The upper surface of the head is uniform 
brownish or even bluish grey, the sides being more or less spotted with brown. Under- 
parts white. Three longitudinal lines or bands may persist in a varying degree into 
the adult stage, but generally they become obscure and the dark bands are broken up 
into longitudinal lines, or areas of alternate black and white or somewhat rufous or 
grey spots, the white lines being only feebly indicated. In many the bands and lineation 
all but disappear. Tail of half-grown specimens generally coral-red in its latter two- 
thirds. : 

The largest male I have met with in Egypt (Abukir) measures 79 millim. from the 
snout to the vent, and the tail 163 millim.; but it attains toa greater size, for the 
corresponding measurements of an individual-of the same sex from the Hadramut are 
86 millim. and 190 millim. respectively. 

This species is common along the margin of the desert among stones and loose soil 
and sparse vegetation, and also on the embankments of canals and roadways. It is 
very plentiful along the banks of the Freshwater Canal at Suez, which are fringed in 
many places with long grass growing in the water, and amid the stems of which the 
lizard runs for shelter when pursued, clinging on to them in the water. It is also 


* Lataste counted 52 rows of scales round the middle of the body. 


150 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


common on the waste land and along the roadways immediately within and without 
the ramparts of Alexandria, and, indeed, along the entire surface of the delta from Port 
Said to the Maryut District, wherever there may be gravel and a few plants. It is 
found in suitable localities as far as Wadi Halfa, and probably much further to the 
south. 

It lives chiefly on small beetles and flies. Its keen sight and the wonderful rapidity 
of movement which characterize it and all the members of this genus, as well as those 
of the genus Evemias, render it most expert in capturing its prey. 

Gravid females of this genus, in the months of January and April, had generally two 
mature eggs in each oviduct. 

It is known to the Arabs as fe =sihliya, or lizard, a term applied by them also 
to the members of the genera Eremias, Mabuia, and Chalcides. 

In order to ascertain the character of the lepidosis throughout Egypt and the 
surrounding area in which this lizard is found, I have counted the scales in 269 
specimens. 

The typical form of this species, as distinguished from var. aspera, is confined to the 
sea-face of the delta—that is to say, the lizards of that area are generally characterized 
by more numerous scales than are to be found in other parts of Egypt. At Assuan, 
Luxor, Tel el Amarna, Gizeh, in the Cairo district, Suez, the Eastern Sudan, the 
Sinaitic Peninsula, and Arabia the scales fall to a lower number than in the deltaic 
lizards, as in the latter the scales start nearly from the maxima of the former and rise 
almost to 58. The highest number found in var. aspera in the Nile valley proper is 48, 
whereas the maximum of 51 occurs in only a single specimen among 33 from Suakin. 
Although high numbers are occasionally reached in var. aspera, they are as a rule 
exceptional. At Assuan, in 8 out of 10 specimens starting at 38, the highest number is 
44, but in the remaining two it is 47. Much the same condition is present in the 
other localities—e. g., at Tel el Amarna the highest prevailing number in 29 specimens 
is 45, as only in 4 out of the 29 do higher numbers occur. At Gizeh, which yields 
the most representative examples of var. aspera, the number 43 is not exceeded in 
33 specimens. On the other hand, at Abukir, no lizard is represented with fewer 
scales than 51; but, although the scales may fall at Ramleh to 48, only 5 out of 13 
have fewer scales than 50. In the same way at Alexandria the number may he as low as 
46; but out of 28 specimens 16 have more than 50 scales, the numbers rising to 58. On 
the western frontier of Tripoli (Duirat) the coarse form of lepidosis prevails, but 
specimens with 51 scales may be exceptionally met with. In Tunisia, Central Algeria, 
and in the Algerian Sahara the low numbers distinctive of var. aspera prevail. The 
same also is true of the Sinaitic Peninsula, Southern Syria (Dead Sea), and especially 
of Aden and Hadramut, Arabia, the Eastern Sudan, and the coast-line of Abyssinia 
(Annesley Bay). 

I have never experienced any difficulty, except in a limited number of cases, in 
separating out these Egyptian lizards to their respective groups by the eye alone, without 


ACANTHODACTYLUS PARDALIS. 1d1 


counting the scales, but the existence of these exceptions links the variety with the 
typical form. ‘The high lepidosis sometimes met with in forms distinctly referable to 
var. aspera appears to be brought about by the multiplication of the small lateral scales 
as distinguished from the truly dorsal scales. Division of the first and fourth supra- 
oculars is of most frequent occurrence in the numerously scaled typical form, and it is 
in it also that the greatest number of femoral pores occurs. In examples of var. espera 
with from 36 to 38 rows of scales there are from 17 to 20 femoral pores, whereas 
in the deltaic lizards with 49 scales and upwards, 20 to 32 femoral pores may be 
present. 

These lizards from the delta approach A. syriacus in the character of the body-scales, 
but, unlike it, the first supraocular is completely broken up, and the fourth is sub- 
divided, and, moreover, their scales are much less numerous and the posterior dorsals 
are more enlarged. A. boskianus is also nearly allied to A. cantoris of Arabia and of 
the region to the north-east. 

Outside Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan, this species is distributed to the west as far 
as the frontier of Morocco, and, in Algeria, it is found in the Tell and on the plateau, 
at elevations over 3000 feet above the sea. It is also present in the Algerian Sahara, 
e.g. at Biskra 360 feet, and at El Aghouat 2437 feet above the level of the sea. It 
extends northwards from Egypt into Southern Syria, and to the east into the Sinaitic 


Peninsula and Arabia. 


ACANTHODACTYLUS PARDALIS, Licht. (Plate X- XI.) 


Lacerta pardalis, Licht. Doubl. Mus. Berl. 1823, p. 99. 

Lacerta savignyi, M.-Edw. Ann. Sc. Nat. xvi. 1829, pp. 73, 85, pl. vi. fig. 4. 

Acanthodactylus savignyi, part., Dum. & Bibr. v. 1839, p. 273; Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 37; 
Gervais, Ann. Se. Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 204; Guichenot, Explor. Alg., Sc. Phys. Zool. v. 
1850, p. 14; part., A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 128; Licht. Nomenc. Rept. Mus. 
Berl. 1856, p. 15; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 36; Gasco, 
Viagg. in Egitto, pt. nu. 1876, p. 108; part., Boettger, Bericht Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, 
p- 178; Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 744; Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 63 ; part., Vaillant, 
Miss. Révoil Pays Comalis, Rept. & Batr. 1882, p. 19; Tristram, Fauna West. Palest. 1884, 
p. 150; Lataste, Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, 11.(xxi1l.) 1885, p. 483 ; Werner, Verh. zool.- 
bot. Ges. Wien, xlii. 1892, p. 354; op. cit. xliv. 1895, p. 82. 

Lacerta deserti, M.-Edw. Ann. Se. Nat. xvi. 1829, pp. 79 et 86, pl. vi. fig. 8 and pl. viii. fig. 6 
(nec Lepechin) ; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 32; Bedriaga, Bull. 
Soc. Imp. Nat. Mose. 1879, no. 3, p. 31. 

Scapteira maculata, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. i. 1838, p. 281. 

Zootoca deserti, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 470; op. cit. 1864, p. 488; Blgr. Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1881, p. 741. 

Acanthodactylus bedriagai, Lataste, Le Natur. 1881, p. 857; Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 746, 
pl. lxiii. fig. 1; Boettger, Kobelt’s Reis. Alg. u. Tun. 1885, p. 469. 


152 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Acanthodactylus vulgaris (non Dum. & Bibr.), Vaill. Miss. Réyoil Pays Comalis, Rept. & Batr. 
1882, p. 19. 

Acanthoductylus pardalis, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 65; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, 
p. 131; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvii.) 1897, p. 278; Anderson, Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1892, p. 14; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 102; Konig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 
1892, p. 19; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlii. 1892, p. 354; op. cit. xliv. 1895, p. 82 ; 
Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 90; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, 
p- 112; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 7. 


16 g and 20 9. Maryut District. 


Snout obtusely or acutely pointed; two entire supraoculars separated from the super- 
ciliaries by two lines of granules : the first supraocular broken up generally into two or 
three pieces or wholly into granules, rarely entire, and the fourth reduced to granules, 
but with one or two small pieces remaining. Subocular generally between the fourth 
and fifth upper labials, rarely between the third and fourth, or the fifth and sixth, 
not unfrequently entering the labial margin. Front margin of the ear generally 
denticulated, but the denticles are, in some, reduced to granules. ‘Temporals variable, 
usually convex, elongate, rounded, or polygonal, smooth or keeled. Dorsal scales 
granular, convex, smooth, but occasionally flattened and becoming rhomboidal and 
imbricate posteriorly, and more or less keeled and increasing in size towards the 
hinder part of the body, but always smaller than the caudal scales. Fifty-six to 
eighty-five scales round the middle of the body. Ten to fourteen ventral plates, 
generally twelve, broader than long, and arranged longitudinally and transversely. An 
enlarged preanal plate, with two or three smaller plates anterior to it and also at its 
sides. Limbs moderately long, variable in length, and rather stout; hind limb 
generally reaches in advance of the shoulder, in some examples more so, but in others 
it only touches the axilla. Digital denticulations feebly developed on the fingers, 
moderately strong on the toes, longest on the fourth; claws short, moderately curved. 
Tail about once and a half as long as the body and head, or longer; scales on its 
upper surface large, generally strongly keeled, those on the under surface smooth or 
obtusely keeled. Fifteen to twenty-four femoral pores. 

Lineated, in the young state, with six white and seven black bands on the middle of 
the body. The bands or lines are lost with advancing age and the dorsal surface is 
covered with a broad network of black bands, here and there marked with white spots 
in longitudinal arrangement, as they are the remains of the white bands. 

General colour, in the adult, olive-green, fawn, or even almost orange-red. Very 
variable in the degree to which the markings are developed. Underparts generally 
white, but in some the throat and ventral surface are finely speckled with dusky. 

The largest Egyptian male has the following measurements:—Snout to vent 68 
millim., tail 99 millim.; but the species attains to a considerably larger size in 
Algeria and Somaliland. 


Pl. XXI1. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


ACANTHODACTYLUS PARDALIS. 


ignyi. 


g. 4 head of ¢, A. Sav 


Fi 


Fig. 1 ¢, Fig. 2 ¢, & Fig. 3 @ taken in Coitu (roth April) 


i 3 m = 7 1a a. 
‘ ; - 
~ . r 1 fi 
' . 
i F 
’ ' 
> y ¢ 
\ F 1 
( i > 
\ ¢ . 
f 
. : , 
. 
. " 
« 
: 
i : o : 
' " : 
© i ra ’ 
Lets J " 
ry » i Mi 
' 
4 
1 ‘ 
t 
: 
‘ ; 
1 : re fy 
"4 1 ’, ‘ 
w , : v, 
< Z a 
. 1 
' 
‘ ’ 
TH 

1 

Fe 
. 
} 
‘ i 
. 
' 
\ M M4 
¥ 


ACANTHODACTYLUS PARDALIS. 153 


I have met with A. pardalis only in the Maryut District and at Alexandria 
on stony semi-arid land, but Gasco has recorded an example from the neighbourhood 
of Cairo. 

In a gravid female of this species, each egg measured 11 millim. long, the length 
of the body of the lizard, from the snout to the vent, being only 62 millim. In a 
female of A. scutellatus, 65 millim. from snout to vent, there was only one egg in the 
left oviduct, and so large—13 millim. in length—that with the two eggs that were 
present in the right oviduct the entire abdominal space available was completely 
filled up. ‘This paucity of eggs may possibly explain why the young of the members 
of this genus and also of Hremias are so seldom observed compared with the young of 
other genera of lizards. 

I captured a male and female (Pl. XXI. figs. 2 & 3) in sexual embrace in the 
month of April, and it was this female which already had her oviducts full of mature 
eggs. 

It ranges southwards to Somaliland, northwards to Syria, and westwards from the 
delta of Egypt through Cyrenaica, Tripoli, Tunisia, and Algeria to the Sahara, at various 
altitudes up to 3000 feet. 

In seventy-six specimens examined by me, the exception was to meet with an 
entire first supraocular. It was generally broken up into small pieces varying from 
2 to 10 in number, while in others it was granular!. Lizards, however, with this 
shield entire are met with in Syria (Beersheba, Jerusalem), Tripoli (Africa), Tunisia, 
Batna, the Aures Mountains, Bou-Saada, and from the Sahara between Biskra and 
Tuggurt. In all, the fourth supraocular was invariably granular. The subocular 
occasionally reaches the labial margin. It does so in six specimens from the Maryut 
District, in one from Jerusalem, and in another from Algeria. In the five other 
species of this genus in which the subocular is excluded from the labial margin, 
viz. A. boskianus, syriacus, schreiberi, scutellatus, and cantoris, 1 have never met with 
any exception to the rule, whereas in A. vulgaris, tristrami, and micropholis, in which 
that shield normally borders the lip, it is occasionally excluded. A. boskianus, syriacus, 
and schreiber? are all closely allied species, and A. vulgaris, pardalis, and tristrami form 
another group. The two species A. scutellatus and A. cantoris are intimately related 
to each other by the structure of their digits and they cannot rightly be compared with 
any of the others. A. microphoiis, on the other hand, has a distinct relationship 
with A. boskianus, and through it to A. scutellatus and A. cantoris. 

In A. pardalis a supplementary labial is sometimes present. Thus it occurs in one 
specimen from each of the following localities, viz. Maryut, Duirat, Batna, Algeria; in 
five from Bou-Saada; in the same number from the Aures Mountains ; and in seven 

‘ In one of the types of Scaptetra maculata, Gray, from Tripoli, it is broken up into granules and small 
shields, in all 10 in number; and in this respect it closely resembles the lizard described by Audouin as 


Lucerta savigny2, in which the first supraocular is represented as reduced to 8 pieces. 
x 


154 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


from between Biskra and Tuggurt. In six of these cases, however, it exists only on 
one side of the head. 

A supplementary upper labial is also met with in specimens of A. vulgaris, both in 
Africa (Tangiers) and in Europe (Abrantes, Portugal), and likewise in A. scutellatus. 

The denticles of the ear are subject to much variation, being well developed in some 
and practically absent in others. 

From the table that follows (pp. 158-160) it will be seen that although there is a 
difference of 29 between the lowest and highest number of scales, in the totality of the 
specimens tabulated, no such disparity is ever met with in any one locality. In Somali- 
land the variation is 16, in Palestine 6, in the Maryut District, Egypt, 19, in Tripoli 
and Tunisia 16, on the plateau of Algeria and the Aures Mountains 16, and in the 
Sahara 16. The highest numbers in these localities are respectively 78, 80, 81, 72, 85, 
and 77. ‘The specimens from Tripoli and Duirat belong to the small form of this 
lizard from the Sahara described by Giinther as Zootoca deserti, while those from 
Batna, that is from the high plateau of Algeria, and from the Aures Mountains attain 
to the greatest size of all (76 millim. from snout to vent), and are somewhat heavier 
built than those from Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, and Somaliland, but the difference in 
relative size of these lizards from these localities is not great. Saharian specimens 
of Zootoca deserti attain to 65 millim. from snout to vent, whereas the largest male 
from the Maryut District is only 3 millim. longer; the largest specimen of the same 
sex from Palestine is 71, from Somaliland 74, and from the plateau of Algeria 76 millim. 
It is thus evident that the somewhat smaller Saharian lizards by their largest indi- 
viduals, 65 millim., Jead into the Egyptian lizards and into those of the Tell of Algeria. 
As pointed out by Lataste, the proportions of those from the high plateau of Algeria, 
and I may also add from the Aures Mountains, are sometimes even heavier than those 
of A. vulgaris, so that when these large forms and those from Egypt and Palestine 
are compared with the Saharian lizards the difference may appear considerable, but it 
is only one of degree. 

The scales are generally almost granular, but in some specimens they are rhomboidal, 
larger, and more flattened than granules. These two modifications may either be 
smooth or more or less carinate, and this may be the case among individuals of the 
same sex from the same locality. In the larger of the two specimens from Tripoli, a 
gravid female (53 millim. from snout to vent), the dorsal scales are smooth or almost 
so to the base of the tail, but in the young female over a considerable part of the 
hinder half of the back they are distinctly keeled, and on the dorsum of the tail are 
strongly so, while in the larger specimen the caudal keels are not quite so markedly 
carinate. 

In the Jizards found at Maryut and in Palestine the dorsal scales are smooth, but in 
a specimen from Egypt, in the Paris Museum, they are strongly keeled and imbricate, 
which is also the case in specimens from Somaliland and Algeria. 


ACANTHODACTYLUS PARDALIS. 156 


The digits of different individuals of the various species vary considerably in length, 
but they are shorter, as a rule, in A. pardalis and in A. tristraméi than in the other 
species. In A. syriacus, A. vulgaris, and A. schreiberi they are a little longer, and still 
more so in A. boskianus, while the longest digits are met with in A. micropholis, 
A, scutellatus, and A. cantoris. ‘The Somaliland lizard described by Lataste as 
A. vaillanti, which measures 74 millim. from snout to vent, has its fourth toe 15 millim. 
long, whereas a specimen of A pardalis from the Aures Mountains, with its body 
76 millim., has the corresponding toe only 11:4 millim. in length. On the other 
hand, an individual from the Maryut District, 57 millim. from the snout to the vent, 
has its fourth toe 11 millim. long, so that the variation in the length of the digits of 
A. pardalis is very considerable. 

The lizard described by Audouin under the name of Lacerta savignyi is known only 
from the figure given by Savigny!. From the fact that it appears as one of the 
discoveries made by the members of the French Expedition we are entitled to conclude 
that it was obtained by them in Egypt. Up to the present time, however, not a single 
lizard agreeing correctly with the figure has been discovered either in Egypt or 
elsewhere, but one or two in Egypt and in Somaliland have been found so resembling 
it as to suggest the possibility that the difficulty that exists in reconciling them with 
the drawing may be due to the imperfections of the latter. 

Professor Vaillant in his account of the Acanthodactyli collected on Révoil’s 
Expedition to Somaliland referred them to two species, viz. to A. vulgaris and 
A. savignyi. They were apparently all collected at Lasgori on the sea-coast. I 
have been enabled carefully to examine these specimens, thanks to the courtesy of 
Professor Vaillant. They have already all been fully described by M. Lataste in his 
valuable contribution to our knowledge of this genus. The conclusion he arrived at 
regarding them was that they represented two species, viz. : one which he considered to 
be A. savignyi, Audouin ; and the second a new species, which he named A. vaillanti 2. 

In 1887, the third volume of Mr. Boulenger’s Catalogue of Lizards appeared, in 
which he stated that he had examined the types of Lichtenstein’s Lacerta pardalis, 
and had found them to be specifically identical with A. bedriagai, Lataste (types of 
which were in the British Museum, presented by M. Lataste himself), and with the 
specimens which Lataste had referred to A. savignyt. 

After a careful examination of the specimens 5847, ¢ and ?, from Lasgori, Somali- 
land, 7. @. probably the two which were originally regarded by Prof. Vaillant as 
A. vulgaris, it appears to me that they present all the features of A. pardalis. 
In these specimens the first supraocular is large with a few granules externally, while 
the fourth is completely decomposed. The snout is more or less elongate, and recalls 

* Deser. de l' Egypte, H. N. i. ? 1829, pp. 172-173, Suppl. pl. i. figs. 8. 1-8. 5. 
* Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) ii. 1885, p. 509. , 
x2 


156 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


the form of the snout of A. savignyi; but the ventrals vary from 12-14, and externally 
are not well defined off from the scales of the sides. A small supplementary labial 
excludes the subocular from the labial margin. The dorsal scales are irregular, 
nearly smooth, or obtusely keeled, the temporals are smooth, the digits short, and 
the coloration is that of A. pardalis. 

Three other specimens (No. 5849) from the same locality as the former were referred 
by Professor Vaillant to A. savignyi along with a fourth, but much larger individual, 
also from Lasgori (No. *6484). The latter was the specimen described by M. Lataste 
as A. vaillanti, and by Mr. Boulenger as A. savignyi. One of the three has the first 
and fourth supraoculars completely resolved into small pieces, and the subocular 
entering the labial margin by a fine point. The dorsal scales are rather strongly 
carinated, the digits are short, and the coloration is the same as that of A. pardalis. 
The heads of these three specimens are proportionately shorter and heavier than the 
head of A. vaillanti, which resembles that of the specimens from Lasgori that are 
referred to A. vulgaris. The dorsal scales cf these three specimens resemble in their 
carination those of A. vaillanti, which has its temporals keeled. 

In all of these specimens, including the type of A. vaillanti, I count 12 ventrals. 
In the largest of the three there are 26 longitudinal rows, 27 and 29 in the other two, 
and 30 in A. vaillanti. The ventrals of the last are proportionally somewhat slightly 
smaller than those of A. pardalis. 

In A. vaillanti, the first supraocular is not more decomposed than it occasionally is 
in undoubted examples of A. pardalis. In the Paris Museum there is a specimen of 
A. pardalis bearing the name A. cruentatus, Pallas (No. ==) in which the first supra- 
ocular, and also the fourth, as stated by M. Lataste, are absolutely decomposed as in 
the figure of 4. savignyi. An azygos shield occurs behind the frontonasal as in 
A. vaillanti. The prefrontals are strongly ridged and the ridges are continued on to 
the frontal, which has consequently a deep median groove. ‘The subocular does not 
border the lip, and lies between the fifth and sixth labials, but the fifth is small on the 
right side and large on the left. The temporals are keeled, but not so strongly as in 
A. vaillanti. The dorsal scales are almost granular anteriorly, large posteriorly, more 
or less imbricate and strongly keeled. ‘The ventrals are broader than long, 10-12 in 
number from side to side, and arranged longitudinally and transversely. ‘The posterior 
preanal is the largest. The digits are moderately long, the fringe short and strong, 
but not prominent. The hind limb reaches the collar. The colour and markings are 
the same as in A. pardalis. The head of this specimen has the form of that generally 
present in A. pardalis, but slightly more pointed. ‘This specimen is stated to have 
been obtained in Egypt, and it seems to me to efficiently link the foregoing Somaliland 
lizards, excluding A. vaillanti, to A. pardalis, Licht., while at the same time it 
further illustrates the great variability of the species. 


py 


ACANTHODACTYLUS PARDALIS. 157 


The following table illustrates the leading details of the specimens in the Paris 


Museum :-— 
No. of Snout Sales Scales Hength Ramona 
aa A : u yA : 
ee Sex. Ben Tail. | pody. | Ventrals. Gan foureh pores. Locality. 
9 2) P m™ ° 
*e4s4| g | 74 | 145 | 69 | 10-12 | 94 | 15 | 3g | Somaliland. Type of 4. Wee 
24 i 
5849 é 68 110 62 10-12 16 12:3] 57 mp 
28 
5847 3 64 66 1D 20 10 5] 28 
2444 me = 22 Ee rpt. 
=o) 64 ise 7 2 27 4) 55 | Psypt 
5390 3 79 1 7 10-4 ; : 
20 © | @ | @ | w 12 190 e10;5) as ” 
2454 SNe F : 98 m 
5280 2 60 105 76 12 29 | 12 93 
16 ; 
sor @ | ay | . | @ | 1 | ot | sel = |Somton: 
19 
5849 3 53 73 72 12 20 9 0 23 
19 
© $ | 52 | 84 | 64 12 2 | 10 | wm | z 
| 


I agree with Mr. Boulenger that 4. vaillanti presents a strong resemblance to the 
figure of A. savignyi. The latter, however, gives us no information about the condition 
of the subocular or the character of the temporals, while it only indicates, in a 
general way, the features of the dorsal scales of the lizard it represents. Moreover, it 
only shows the presence of 8 ventral plates at the most. In identifying it with 
A. vaillanti, the existence of a subocular bordering the lip, keeled temporals, and the 
presence of 10 or 12 ventral plates have therefore to be imagined. The evidence of 
the identity of the two is therefore not conclusive. 

A, tristrami is a closely allied species to A. vulgaris and also to A. pardalis; the four 
specimens in the British Museum are adults from Lebanon and Mount Hermon, and 
between Baalbeck and Shtora.. The type, a female, was obtained by Canon Tristram 
from the first of these localities, and probably at a considerable elevation. The other 
three specimens were collected by myself at heights varying from 2400 ft. to 3800 ft. 
above the sea-level. The uniformly flattened and non-carinate dorsal scales, their gradual 
passage between the thighs into the granules at the base of the limbs, and their greater 
size on the middle of the back enable it to be distinguished from A. pardalis; but 
specimens of the latter are now and again met with that show scales here and there 
exactly resembling those of this nearly allied form. The subcaudals at the base 
of the tail, for about a third of its length, are perfectly smooth; but in many 


158 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. of A. pardalis, Licht. (in millim.). 


| Sex. Baek Tail. Sen Ventrals, ae Bee 5 Hemera) Locality. 
vent. body. thighs. | fourth toe. | P*°* 
3 Tb hae) joa 12 32 | 12 i, | Beersheba. 
3 70 76 12 32 11-2 = Jerusalem. 
3 64 Fl ee SLO = , 
g ..1.| 70 |103 | 78 | 12 | 85 | 107 | © | Beersheba. 
2 71 | 92 | 79 12 24 | 12 | 2 | Jerusalem. 
9 mm | 2 | go | w | or | wa | 2 : 
Q 63 | 90 | 62 | 12 | 24 | 108 | 1 | Maryut District. 
® asco] G8 | OA | @ | 1 | a | oe | = : : 
e) 61 | 85 | 64 12 22 | 10 a 2 a 
Q* 62 | 82 | 65 12 oy |) i = n ; 
) 61 | 92 | 65 12 21 | 10 i: F : 
\2 61 66 12 26 | 10 u s e 
le. 59 | 85 | 70 12 25 | 10 i - 5 
| 9 Bi) 89) |) 70 12 oR} || ai i, 3 - 
g* GA | ot | am 12 |) il = e " 
ou Be || GS || wa 12 21 98 | 2 , 3 
oe ie enh ol 12 28 9 : te - 
Q , so | 7 |p 12 24 | 10 e ‘ 55 
ha 60 | 98 | 72 12 % | 08 | = ‘ , 
he 60 | 78 | 72 12 23 | 10:5 = 5 i 
one 61 72 12 23 O22 | 2 - a 
a. 63 72 12 23 | 10 5 | 
Gud eee ee te ey Pate || |, ; 
Gina 63 72 12 25 | 11-2 = 5 
Cue 62 | 100 | 73 12 Oy | ati z 55 : 
© 4 58 93 73 12 31 11 ig : 


* Taken “in cuitu, April 12, 1892. 


ACANTHODACTYLUS PARDALIS. 159 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Snout Scales Scales | Length 
Sex | ace | Talk | aa | Ventre eee our toe, Ta Locality: 
Orne 57 ed 73 12 20 10 a Maryut District. 
Gs so | . | @ | @ | 93 | woe | 2 i ,; 
Gin 7 || o | a | ae len | am 5 : 
® coo @ |. | Bi w | so | a6 = ' i 
@ coc] GD | co | | TW | os | mes | 2 : 5 
@ cso BF | cc | | wm ea) wo = : : 
@ coool 64 | OS | HS | w | o3 | m = ‘ : 
G coool Gl | 109 | GO| TB es | ao 2 nines 
ae ay (ta | 7 | @ | m | we |S i Me 
a 68 || 99 | 76 12 25 | 18 | 2 : i 
G coool GD | co || ww | | 68 | soa | S ah 
E socal SE mw || 12 || 88 || ww = : , 
8 <con| BA 7 | 1 | 2 | zo os 5 % 
& coool G8 ao | @ | e& | me | 2 nae es 
G osoe| @ | | eo | te | ae | am = Suns 
gees s | el | ei 12 a | Wop | S 2 5 
| 
| 3 69 96 69 12 55 11 g El Guerah. Type of A. bedriagat, Lat. | 
3 71 72 14 26 11 a Var. bedriagai, Lat. Batna. 
3 67 98 77 12-14 34 10:9 = Aures Mountains. | 
3 a | 68 | wy | 1a | 28 | im Pan ae | 
é 73 || .. || | Wa | eo] me | BP 
3 st | .. | 56 | 12 | 17 | 109 | = | Gabes, Tunisia. 
3 53 59 12 | 22 | 10 1 | Duirat. 
fe) 63 61 12 17 95 7g | Bou-Saada. 
3 53 63 12 | 22 | 10 a | Duirat. 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


TO He OUST © E+ ON EE © © BLO © a Ou CL © LO) 


(vy (@%, ko) 4X0) d¥o) dro) tk) go) yan) NS 


Tail. 


85 


97 


94 


64 


aan Ventrals. ieee “ae emoral Tocality: 
body. thighs, | fourth toe.| P°*** 
63 12 19 87 a Duirat. 
63 12 17 98) | 7 
63 12 18 10°8 = Biskra, Laghouat. 
ef | 12 | 18 | 93 | 2 | Duirat. 
64 12 17 11 7 Laghouat. 
67 12 18 8-8 = Tripoli. Type of S. maculata, Gray. 
67 12 12 9 = Bou-Saada. 
67 | 12 | 22 | 115 | 3 | Biskra, Tuggurt. 
ay | im |) wa | io zt | Laghouat. 
68 12 17 | 10 i, | Gabes, Tunisia. 
68 12 23 | 11 “7 | Biskra, Tuggurt. | 
68 12 | 19 9 a | Wadi Dermel. 
69 12 12 95 | 72 | Bou-Saada. 
PON Pe ee OI Pe op 
70 12 19 10:3 = Biskra, Tuggurt. 
@ |) 1 || 23 | 20 re Nts: Gog, 
70 12 | 19 95 | 72 | Wadi Dermel. 
71 im | 78 | io 2 | Bou-Saada. 
71 12 18 11 me Biskra, Tuggurt. | 
72 12 20 9°7 = Tripoli. Type of S. maculata, Gray. 
73 12 17 95 | i | Biskra, Tuggurt. 
74 1 | So) || 9 tz | Bou-Saada. 
7 | 1 | io | am He eealebie ae | 
75 12 23 11 18 Biskra, Tuggurt. | 
GU 12 19 9 N’Goussa and Beni Mzab. Type of | 
Zootoca deserti, Gthr. 


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ACANTHODACTYLUS SCUTELLATUS. 161 


specimens of A. pardalis this also occurs, however, on a more limited area, so that 
the difference between the two in this respect is only one of degree. ‘The digital 
denticulations are feebly developed, as in A. vulgaris; there are only two entire supra- 
oculars, as in that species; and, as occurs generally in it, the subocular borders the 
lip. All of these characters, however, are shared more or less by A. pardalis, so that 
the differences between the three are ill-defined. 


ACANTHODACTYLUS SCUTELLATUS, Aud. (Plate XXII.) 


Lacerta grammica, part., Licht. Verz. Doubl. Mus. Berl. 1823, p. 100. 

Lacerta scutellata, Aud. Descr. de ’ Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. 1829, p. 172, Suppl. pl. i. figs. 7.1 to 7. 5; 
H. Milne-Edw. Ann. Sc. Nat. xvi. 1829, p. 85. 

Lacerta olivieri, part., Aud. op. cit. p. 174, Suppl. pl. i. figs. 11. 1 and 11. 2. 

Lacerta dumerilii, H. Milne-Edw. 1. c. pp. 76 & 85, pl. vu. fig. 9. 

Scapteira inornata, Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H.i. 1838, p. 281. 

Meroles dumerilii, Gray, 1. c. p. 282. 

Acanthodactylus scutellatus, Dum. & Bibr. v. 1839, p. 272; Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 37; 
Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 204; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; op. cit. 
1880, p. 308; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil. sér.) iy. no. 7, 1862, p. 36; Steind. Sitzb. Ak. 
Wien, lxii. i. 1870, p. 331; Blgr. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1878, p. 185; Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1881, p. 744, pl. Ixii. fig. 2; Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1887, p. 64; Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. xiii. 
1891, p. 180; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvii.) 1897, p. 278; Boettger, Abh. 
Senck. Ges. xii. 1881, p. 401; Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 90; Lortet, Arch. Mus. Hist. 
Nat. Lyon, 1888, i. p. 187; Tristram, West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 150; Lataste, 
Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, 1. 1885, p. 491; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 14; 
Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 102; Konig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, p. 19 ; Olivier, 
Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 111; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 1895, xliv. p. 82; 
Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom. Stud, Zool. v. fase. i. & ii. 1896, p. 45. 

Acanthodactylus inornatus, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 38. 

Lacerta (Scapteira) grammica, Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 304. 

Acanthodactylus savignyi, var. schreiberii (non Blgr.), Vaillant, Miss. Révoil Pays Comalis, Rept. & 
Batr. 1882, p. 20. 


+0 


Ain Musa, near Suez. 

Suez District. 
3. Matariyeh. Dr. Walter Innes. 
@ andl ?. Margin of desert, Gizeh. The late V. Ball, Esq., U.B. 
3,49,and 1 juv. Margin of desert, Gizeh. 
3. Desert north of Birket el Kurun. Major R. H. Brown, R.E. 
Q. Fayum. Dr. J.C. Mitchell. 
gand1 9. Wadi Halfa. O. Charlton, Esq. 
g and3 Q. Wadi Halfa. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O, 
3,12, and 1juv. Wadi Halfa. 


wwe KH Wwe we 


162 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Snout more or less pointed, longer in some than in others; four supraocular shields, 
the first generally entire, but occasionally showing a slight tendency to division; fourth 
usually broken up into two or more separate portions posteriorly, with a group of 
granules intervening between them and the third supraocular; a line of granules 
separating these shields from the superciliaries which are generally seven in number ; 
subocular broadly excluded from the labial margin, having below it the fourth, fifth, 
and sixth labials, the fifth and sixth being much smaller than the fourth ; temporals more 
or less conical, somewhat elongate, and feebly keeled. Generally four to six denticles 
in front of the ear, varying in size, sometimes very small, and occasionally absent. 
Dorsal scales variable, smallest on the nape, largest between the thighs, smooth or 
carinated, more or less rhomboidal, and slightly imbricate or granular, sharply marked off 
from the larger caudal scales. Ventrals 14 to 18 across the middle of the belly, 14 the 
prevailing number ; nearly square, arranged in longitudinal and transverse rows, the 
halves of a transverse series meeting at a slight angle in the mesial line ; the ventrals 
pass insensibly into the scales on the sides. Collar perfectly free all round. Generally 
a large preanal, with some enlarged plates lying in frent of it, but sometimes broken 
up. Limbs well developed; hind limb reaching either to the shoulder or to the ear. 
Digits of the fore limb with four rows of scales, 1 superior, | inferior, and 1 on each 
side; and those of the hind limb with only three rows, viz. a dorso-lateral, a lower row, 
and one along the external borders of the digits: both sides of the fingers are fringed, 
but only the external borders of the toes ; the lateral scales of the former constitute the 
fringe, and the external row of scales of the latter the strongly curved denticles of 
the hind foot, better developed than in any other species. ‘The plates on the under 
surtace of the digits have an obtuse mesial keel. The claws are long and but little 
curved. Length of the tail variable, sometimes slightly exceeding twice the length of 
the head and body, but generally shorter; upper caudal scales strongly keeled, those on 
the under surface of the base smooth, but the remainder more or less keeled. 14 to 
27 femoral pores. 

Colour bluish green or greyish, yellowish or pale buff, more or less covered with 
dusky reticulations enclosing pale spots, but occasionally nearly obsolete in yellowish 
and buff-coloured specimens which are sometimes finely black-spotted. The reticu- 
lations occasionally assume the form of short transverse black wavy lines, while in 
others they become broken up into spots. In some, there is a dusky line from behind 
the ear along the side, sometimes becoming bluish between the limbs ; and indications 
of dusky longitudinal lines may be present on the hinder part of the body, prolonged 
more or less along the sides of the tail. The throat occasionally suffused with bluish 
green. The limbs, especially the hinder limbs, reticulately marked and spotted. 
Underparts white. The young is spotted with white, which may or may not assume 


the form of longitudinal lines. 


ACANTHODACTYLUS SCUTELLATUS. 165 


The largest Egyptian ¢ and 2 are from Wadi Halfa, and measure as follows :— 


3. Snout to vent 71 millim., tail 149 millim. 
@ 9 ” 2) 64 BP) 


A. scutellatus is found on stony and sandy ground, such as that skirting the margin 
of the alluvium, e. g., between Gizeh and Abu Roash. 

It is seemingly widely distributed over North Africa, as it has been recorded from 
Somaliland, Sennaar, Nubia, Egypt, Cyrenaica, Tripoli, Tunisia, Algeria, the Algerian 
Sahara, the Semur district on the west coast of Africa, and from Senegambia. It is 
also present in the Sinaitic Peninsula and Southern Syria. 

From the table (pp. 165-168) recording the measurements of this species it will be 
observed that not only no Saharian, but also no Algerian or Tunisian lizards, quite attain 
to the dimensions of the lizards from Wadi Halfa. At the same time, the difference of 
size between the largest lizard from Duirat, on the confines of Tunisia and Tripoli, and 
the largest individual from Wadi Halfa is so slight that the lizards from these two regions 
may be regarded as practically attaining to the same dimensions. Not one of the speci- 
mens in my collection from Lower Egypt measures more than 65 millim. from snout to 
vent ; but the lizards figured from Egypt by Savigny, natural size, are quite as large as 
the Wadi Halfa specimens. The largest individual from the Sahara is a female from 
Tuggurt, which measures 54 millim. from snout to vent, but it is only 3 millim. 
shorter than the largest female from Lower Egypt, so that there is no very great 
difference between the size of the lizards of these two regions, but those from the 
Sahara are slightly more slender. The specimens from the Sinaitic Peninsula and 
Syria attain to the dimensions of the Egyptian lizards. On the other hand, this lizard 
in the western extremity of its distribution is seemingly smaller than in the other 
regions, as the largest male is only 57 millim. from the snout to the vent. As I have 
seen only one specimen from Somaliland, it is impossible at present to say to what 
dimensions it attains in that area. In Lower Egypt, females (Pl. XXII. fig. 6) of a buff 
colour and with non-carinated scales are not infrequently met with in a gravid condition, 
and not more than 44 millim. in Jength from snout to vent; but, at the same time, others 
resembling them in colour and in the character of the lepidosis, attain 57 millim. long, 
thus equalling the largest female from the same region, and in which the scales are not 
quite so granular. These small buff-coloured specimens recall the western variety, 
exigua of Lataste. From these facts it is evident that there are no sharp lines of 
demarcation between the smaller and larger individuals, and that consequently varieties 
founded on size cannot be clearly defined. 

In the Wadi Halfa individuals (figs. 1 & 2) the scales are larger than in those from 
Lower Egypt, and are distinctly carinated and more or less imbricate. About Gizeh 
and elsewhere a feeble carination can be detected in some specimens, but it is very 
slight compared with what is present at Wadi Halfa. 

y2 


ra 


164 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


In the Sinaitic Peninsula and in Southern Syria, the scales are in no sense granular, 
but they are at the same time extremely small and more or less carinated, a feature 
which is more or less distinctive of the species in all other localities. At Duirat, 
Tunisia, and Algeria the scales are more or less rhomboidal, but in some specimens 
they verge on being granular in both sexes. The Saharian lizards have also 
thomboidal keeled scales, but they are somewhat smaller than in the lizards still further 
to the west (Senegambia, &c.), in which they are more rounded at their free margins 
and more distinctly keeled. ‘There is thus a considerable degree of difference between 
the granular-scaled lizards and those with rhomboidal, keeled, somewhat imbricate 
scales, but the undoubted occurrence of others with scales intermediate between the 
two extremes links them together. 

In lizards from Wadi Halfa the scales vary from 73-87, an amount of variation 
which practically embraces that which is met with in the typical form in the Fayum and 
in the southern portion of the delta, Gizeh and Matariyeh. In the Isthmus of Suez, 
however, the scales manifest a distinct tendency to become more numerous, as they do 
not fall below 85 and rise to 105. This high type of lepidosis extends into the 
Sinaitic Peninsula and into Syria, but it is only a slight gradual increase on the 
highest number found in the typical form. It thus appears that in the number of 
their scales, as in their other differences, they pass into one another. 

In the Saharian region, the number of scales is lower, as a rule, than it is in Egypt. 
At Laghouat it falls as low as 56, and only exceptionally rises to 80. This means 
that the scales are larger. These lizards represent Scapteira inornata, Gray, and the 
var. exigua, Lataste. Traced still further to the west, viz. in Senegambia, Cape Verd, 
and Cape Jubi, the scales, while they fall as low as in the Saharian lizards, do not 
rise above 68. 

In lizards referable to var. dumerilii, M.-Edw., the upper labials show a distinct 
tendency to variation, as the fourth and fifth appear to amalgamate in some, and the 
second or third to divide in others. 


Synopsis of the Eqyptian Species of Acanthodactylus. 


A. Four rows of scales round the fingers, viz. a superior, an inferior, and 
one externo- and one interno-lateral, each of the latter forming a short 
fringe ; three rows of scales round the toes, viz. a dorso-lateral, an 
inferior, and one externo-lateral forming a strong fringe. 
Dorsal scales small, rhomboidal, slightly enlarged on the posterior part 
ofitheibody? Sou.) sn Bene ost oe Oe UieperArscutellatuss 
B. Three rows of scales round the digits of the front and hind limbs, viz. : 
a dorsal, inferior, and externo-lateral forming a fringe. 
Dorsal scales strongly carinate, imbricate, much larger on the hinder 
partofathe back than\ant rior] yaa mice min nnn Tn- Minn iNnyn- MIMIC RUOSKUGTIUUSs 
Dorsal scales small, granular, smooth or more or less carinate. . . . A. pardalis. 


ACANTHODACTYLUS SCUTELLATUS. 165 


Measurements &c. of A. scutellatus, Awd. (in millim.). 


Sex. ve Tail. round Ventrals. hans rea Hoe Locality. 
@ acco) de ra 57 14 23 9°6 a Somaliland. Paris Museum, No.5848. 
dim of 89 f . | 7 | We eo | we |) a i \weirers 
G sodd) TO | ce | GEN Re) ere ae Fool deme 
Gee 62 |195 | 74 12 Senn anil = Nd pe 
lo. GAM ree Fer \an s14o albeSS Wnt On Mi oe Wb eer ae 
Bo: al |q49 | 738 | 14 || 98 | 17 2 ome 
Gyinccal GO Ih Sega Tey || Gea eeniay ats 2a eam 

§ ccod TO | ce | GD | wh | se | a6 Se cay ve 
voce G2 I pas aee 1 ee) ere! Sess | Sa 

® coodl GB | se | eB | we} en | ae te 

@ ccod) GL | ..1]) Get}, ave ee a us| SE ee 

@ coca GH Awe Si I ee i evn ste | ee ae 

® cco Se | & | FO | we | oe | an = | Cairo. 

Ore. 56 95 72 14 33 12 -: | Wells of Moses. 
G % 60 ss 76 14 29 14 = Fayum. 

@ sso CB | O83 | 7] Ta | so | w 5 | Gizeh. 

® sore 4B fy | 18 | oe | 71 alias 

6 sooe| 28 7 | We | | wee Pe 

@ .ore| SO | 05 | Go | ae | es | a6 aoe die 

® scoal 0 | | eo fae | oe | oo gm Gani. 
® .2.,| 86 SOP MLS nmlccnm pecs uy eo (nage 
|2 cos Gl | Of | oS | ma | ee | we | Bo], 
[2 scl GD | O | & | wt | es | i ee 
1 2.) 83) G2 | ee | S| es | aos ee 
1G cool 2 | WM | eB 1 a | en | ae ee 
ho. ao | 7 | 82 | me | ay | ie 1 | Fayum. 


166 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


n 
iS 
4 


| 
| 


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ait. | coun | Vontrata, [betyeral of. [emoral Locality. 
body. thighs. | fourth toe.| POTS 
| ee | a4 | as || a6 a | Gizeh. 
85 16 39 14 2 Isthmus of Suez. 
72 86 14 29 11 = Cairo. 
7 | ep | We | es | an 13 | Gizeh. 
12 | 63 | vw | ge | maa | = . 
7 | 6 | Ta |) > | m = A 
105 | 39 || i4 || 3a || 1 =| Matariyeh. 
95 | 89 | 16 | 35 | 125 | 3 | Wells of Moses. 
89 14 36 12 = Isthmus of Suez. 
a | Ww | ~@ | we | S Oey 
6 | of | m | & | S he, 
i || GA | We || a8 | w | Gizch Desert. 
93 94 14 31 13 = Isthmus of Suez. 
ee | of | a | a3 | ims | S ey 
106)) | SOME 1le43 a5 Q F 
6 |i | i | 2 || me | 2 ; 
103 vi | ay | no = > 9 Caml BL Oat, 
5 |) Ww || ay | 1 Z ere ee 
a8) Ol | we) es | am = | Mount Sinai. 
7 | ea | we | ay |e = Sate 
95 | 82 | 14 | 95 | 122 | 3S | Jaffa. 
102 |) ca | as || a | a8 ae 
a | s | a | a | i6 Nee 
91 | 85 14 || ia || 2 F 
83 | 85 14 26 | 10:8 | > | Jerusalem. 
111 | 89 14 pa ee | i 


ACANTHODACTYLUS SCUTELLATUS. 


Measurements &e. (continued). 


16 


@y xe) <x) © y GK Gro) 4h) 4h) «tr sy Ot Gg) KO) = KO) axO) tn) ch) Oy) Oy 


72 


87 
91 


82 
93 


87 


Scales 
round 
body. 


Scales 


Length 
vot a 

ai 31 | 135 
14 o7 13 
14 22 9:2 
14 o7 10 
iA || oo | 70 
1 | oe | 70 
wm |) oa | am 
14 | 27 | 10 
ma | 99 | an 
14 24 11:8 
14 28 13:5 
14 «3 | 36 
wm | sa | a6 
wa || oR | ao 
14 | 30 | 122 
14 31 12-6 
aa 4) ek I ay 
14 28 11:2 
14 25 12 
14 26 11:5 
we | o3 | aa 
1 25 11:5 
14 25 11:2 
14 228 10:3 
14 |) 30 |) 118 


Femoral 
pores. 


Locality. 
Jaffa. 
Jerusalem. 


Laghouat. Scales decidedly carinated. 


Bou-Saada. 
Laghouat. bi 
” ” 
Ouargla. “ 
Duirat. 3 
Bou-Saada. 5 
Hadjira. s; 
Duirat. e 
Tuggurt. 45 
Bou-Saada. 9 
Tuggurt. * 
Duirat. Fs 
” ” 
Laghouat. 53 
Tugegurt. a 


” 


” 


” 


Tripoli. Type of A. inornata, Gray. 
Scales decidedly carinated. 


Duirat. 35 
Hadjira. i. 
Duirat. “3 
Hadjira. 55 


” ” 


168 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


we |] |] rn SRL a Fear 
Oa 39 70 56 14 19 9°6 2 Cape Verd. Scales strongly carinated. 
® soll | | S38 | 14 | ao | to a . : ‘ 
eS srotsl hs 75 63 14 18 10 x Cape Jubi. Scales distinctly carinated. 
ine ofl 2S | 8 i co | mw | oe | @5 | = ' 2 i 
Q@ . oH a. | os | ia 7) a | 6 1, | Senegambia, ‘ fs 
3 By | os |) G2 ae | ert |) 63 = | Cape Jubi. i 
@ cd) Bo. PCL a | ie | m a i 5 si 
ae Sil | eR) || GS 14 20 | 11:8 | 72 | Senegambia. Us : 
G cond! 89 | Ml |) G5 I tA || eB | o a ¢ , : 
8 sod) 2 N63 | Ge |) 24 | oo | am a . : “ 
@.. By 68 | 4 | om | ae | 3 ‘ ‘ 
Q 49 a 68 14 21 10 e Cape Jubi. J Pr 


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EREMIAS MUCRONATA. 169 


EREMIAS. 
Eremias, Wiegm. Herp. Mex. pt. 1. 1834, p. 9. 


Nostril defined by three or four nasal plates. Lower eyelid scaly, or with a trans- 
parent disk frequently broken up into small pieces. Occipital frequently absent. 
Collar free or detached, transverse, angular or curved; gular fold sometimes present. 
Dorsal scales small, non-imbricate or imbricate. Ventrals smooth, quadrangular, in 
straight longitudinal or in irregular and slightly oblique longitudinal series. Digits 
nearly cylindrical or compressed, with keeled transverse lamella below, but without 
a lateral fringe. Femoral pores present. 


EReEMIAS MuCRONATA, Blanford. (Plate XXIII. figs. 1 & 2.) 


Acanthodactylus mucronatus, Blanford, Zool. of Abyss. 1870, p. 4538, fig. 

Eremias mucronata, Giinther, Zool. Rec. 1870, p. 71; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. ser. 2, xii. 
(xxxu.) 1891, p. 11; Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) xvi. 1895, p. 168; Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. ser. 2, 
xy. (xxxv.) 1895, p. 13; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 534; Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. ser. 2, xvi. 
(xxxvi.) 1896, p. 551; op. cit. ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvii.) 1896, p. 9; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 920 
& figs.; Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. ser. 2, xvii. (xxxvii.) 1897, p. 278; Boettger, Zool. Anz. 1893, 
p- 115; Anderson, Herpet. of Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 103. 

Eremias lugubris (non Smith), Vaill. Miss. Révoil Faune et Flor. Pays Comalis, Rept. et Batr. 
1882, p. 23. 

Pseuderemias lineolata, Boettger, Abh. Senck. Ges. xi. 18838, p. 118. 

Boulengeria mucronata, Lataste, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. ser. 2, il. (xxii.) 1885, p. 117. 

Eremias brenneri, part., Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1887, p. 86. 


1 ¢@. Plain of Suakin. Colonel Sir Charles Holled Smith, C.B., K.C.M.G., &c. 
16 g and4 9. Plain of Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 

15 g and10 ¢. Plain of Suakin. 

12 6,5 ?, and 2juv. Durrur. 

Head somewhat depressed ; snout rather sharply pointed, moderately long ; nasals 
but little swollen, four in number, two lower, an upper and a posterior. Head-shields 
occasionally more or less faintly rugose ; frontonasal excluded from the rostral by the 
nasals which form a broad suture behind it; frontonasal and frontal deeply grooved ; 
two prefrontals; three large supraoculars ; the first the smallest and occasionally more 
or less divided ; only the second and third supraoculars bordered by granules externally 
and internally ; interparietal small, separated from the small occipital by a line of one 
or more small pieces; parietals more or less subquadrangular, with a narrow elongate 
scale along the outer border; temporals granular, smooth; two loreals, the hinder 
shield small; subocular not entering or entering the labial margin, resting usually on 

Z 


170 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


the 6th and 7th labials, or on the 5th and 6th, rarely on the 7th and 8th or asym- 
metrically on these labials. No transparent ocular disk. ar vertically oval, mode- 
rately large, its margin occasionally with feeble denticulations. ‘Temporals granular, 
smooth. Two pairs of chin-shields in contact behind the mental, the third pair beg 
more or less separated by interposed scales. Collar free, from 6 to 12 plates ; the first 
transverse row of ventrals behind the collar longer than broad, and usually 12 in 
number from shoulder to shoulder. Dorsal scales granular anteriorly, more or less 
rounded, smooth and juxtaposed, but further back they tend to become longer than 
broad, and before the sacral region they may or may not show faint indications of an 
obtuse keel; 62 to 88 scales across the middle of the body including the ventrals. 
Ventrals broader than long, in longitudinal and transverse series ; 6 from side to side, 
across the middle, with an outer row of smaller plates on each side; 24 to 29 ventrals 
along the mesial line from the collar to the pores; preanal plate large, more or less 
round; 14 to 22 femoral pores. Limbs rather long; the hind limb when adnate 
reaches to the eye or in advance of it; digits rather slender, much compressed ; upper 
surface of fore limb covered with large, smooth, hexagonal plates ; upper aspect of 
hind limb with keeled imbricate scales, largest on the tibial portion; the front of the 
thigh with a line of broad smooth plates; and the inner aspect of the tibial portion 
with similar plates and a series of smaller plates. ‘Tail more than twice and a half 
as long as the body and head, tapered to a fine point; supracaudal scales strongly 
keeled ; subcaudals smooth at the base, afterwards strongly keeled. 

Prevailing colour on the upper surface fawn ; a black band from the mesial line of 
the occiput to the base of the tail, or prolonged on to the tail for a short way ; two 
lateral dark bands external to the mesial band, and more or less spotted with fawn, or 
obscurely with brick-red ; a dusky line from the ear to the groin, occasionally obscurely 
indicated, but usually spotted with fawn. These bands are separated from each other 
by narrow fawn-coloured bands. Upper surface of the head more or less punctulated 
with dusky, also the fore limb; hind limb with black reticulations enclosing pale spots. 
All the bands are more or less prolonged on to the tail, or they may be broken up into 
brownish-black spots. Underparts pure white, with the exception of that of the tail 
which is citron-yellow. 

In the breeding-season the under surface of the neck of the male is orange or 
gamboge-yellow, the under surface of the tail having a greenish hue. 

This species is very common on the great maritime plain at Durrur and Suakin, 
and is generally met with on the sandy and pebbly patches that mark the position of 
the watercourses or khors which are covered with a fine grass a foot or more in height 
and a variety of plants and shrubs, the coloration of the lizard being in wonderful 
harmony with its surroundings. 

The stomachs of the genus Eremias generally contain the remains of coleoptera and 
are remarkably free from sand, as their feeding-grounds lie in stony places. 


EREMIAS MUCRONATA. 171 


The type of this species was obtained by Mr. Blanford in the Anseba valley, and 
since then #. mucronata has been found to have a wide distribution over Abyssinia, 
Eritrea, and Somaliland, extending to the valleys of the Webi and Juba rivers, and 
along the coast by Assab to the Goolis Mountains near Berbera. It has never been 
found in the Nile valley, but it has been recorded from Mount Sinai. 

In the following table will be found the dimensions of 75 specimens and the 
variations that occur in their scaling, in their femoral pores, and in the position of 
the subocular :— 


E. mucronata, Blanf., arranged according to the number of scales round the body, 
including the ventrals. (Measurements in millim.) 


| 
Mesial lon-| Position of | 
Snout : Scales gitudinal subocular Femoral 3 
Sex. to Het, round line of between pores. Locality. 
vent. body. ventrals. labials. 
ipeerain ieee es a PS isran Sear oa 
3 47 105* 72 25 6&7 1B Suakin. 
1 
9 49 % 72 27 BGG | x 4 
3 44 | 114 72 26 6&7 | je | Duror. 
3 5 | geo | wm | 8 | aOR A 
3 Ss iio | @ | wy | Gay | 2 ‘ 
2 45 i 72 28 { eal = , 
3 49 | 134 72 25 { ee oo | Suakin, 
9 47 | 109 72 29 { os # P 
9 49 115 72 28 { g e i = 2 
é 49 | 135 72 25 6&7 | 5 | Island of Berbera. 
6&7 22 e 
é 47 122 72 25 5&6 59 Between Laffarugh and Aberio. 
2 49 124 74 27 6&7 7 | Suakin. 
5&6 16 

Juv 35 92 74 De) 6&7 is Island of Berbera. 
3 49 87* 74 26 { A i 3 : Durrur. 
3 47 114 74 27 6&7 i3 | Suakin. 
$ 49 | 104% | 74 27 { eee E 
3 46 | 110" | 74 27 { sae i 
3 40 g3* | 74 25 { ae 19 : 


* An asterisk indicates that the tail has been renewed. 


Vv 


Sex. 


| Juv. 


tno} tke) fey ako} xo) xo) HCH ON OCR COOH 


qy 
Oo i<j 
< 


Qa 


120 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


satya 
wir | Uae 

74 25 
74 26 
76 26 
76 26 
76 27 
76 25 
76 26 
76 27 
76 25 
78 

78 25 
78 27 
78 26 
78 26 
78 23 
78 25 
78 25 
78 28 
78 27 
78 26 
78 25 
78 27 
78 26 
78 29 
78 

78 27 


Position of 
subocular 
between 
labials. 


6&7 
7&8 


5 & 6 
6&7 


5&6 


6&7 
5&6 


6&7 
5 & 6 
6&7 
5 & 6 
6&7 
6&7 
5&6 
5&6 
6&7 
6&7 
6&7 


lor) 
& 
“I 


[teen Lommettneen amet ementieen ¥ a 
DQ AWIAMNANIAA T IWS 
Cee ee eee & &e 


WI AIDIRBUBDIRP ® a~T 


for) 
& 
~I 


6&7 
6&7 


Locality. 


Anseba Valley, Abyssinia. 


Island of Berbera. 
Suakin. 


” 


Durrur. 

Suakin. 

Island of Berbera. 
Mount Sinai. 


Suakin. 


Suakin. 


EREMIAS MUCRONATA. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


173 


Sex. 


OOo &BhH ADD DH HAH HA AA HOH BA A HO H & HM GB H @ 


Snout 
to 
vent. 


42 
49 
49 
46 
48 
47 
49 
46 
40 
49 
48 
47 
47 
46 
46 
49 
44 
46 
47 
47 
43 
40 
52 
51 
48 
46 


Tail. 


115 


Mesial lon- 
gitudinal 
line of 
ventrals, 


Position of 
cere | as Loa 
labials. 
7&8 = Suakin. 
19 
5&6 19 oS 
7&8 18 
5&6 18 2 
18 
5&6 ib es 
5 & 6 15 
6&7 16 B 
7&8 18 D 
6&7 7 urrur. 
7 & 8 16 
6&7 16 20 
17 
5&6 7 a 
5&6 18 5 
{ 6&4 17 Suakin. 
15 
6&7 16 Walker’s Torrent. 
9 
5&6 | 2 | Suakin. 
6&7 18 
5 & 6 20 73 
29 
6&7 = Durrur. 
17 
6&7 7 3 
‘ 19 
6&7 18 50 
6&7 iy | Suakin. 
6&7 15 
5 & 6 15 32 
5&6 18 
6 & 7 19 % 
5&6 16 
6&7 15 22 
18 
6&7 ie . 
17 
6&7 a - 
7&8 17 
5 & 6 16 fe 
7&8 5) | Ras Beilul. 
19 
7&8 18 3 os 
6&7 | 7a | Suakin. 
Gar | = 


174 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Sex. 


Saou Seales Peel lon 
to Tail. round Cine of 
wens body. ventrals. 
47 108* 84 26 
AT 105* | 86 25 
29 i@ | 26 
48 135 88 24 
47 127 88 27 


Position of 
subocular 
between 
labials. 


6&7 
6&7 
6&7 
6&7 


6&7 


ee 


Femoral 
pores. 


17 
18 
18 
19 
17 
18 
16 
i7 
18 


19 


Locality. 


Suakin. 
Durrur. 


” 


Suakin. 


Analysis of the position of the suboculars in the foregoing specimens. 


Subocular between 6 & 7 labials in 


” 


” 


” 


31 
11 
3 


Four other species of Eremias closely related to HE. mucronata occur in Somaliland, 
viz. E. erythrosticta, E. smithi, E. striata, and E. brenneri, all of which have recently 
been fully described and very carefully illustrated by Mr. Boulenger !. 


EREMIAS GuTTULATA, Licht. 


Lacerta guttulata, Licht. Verz. Doubl. Mus. Berl. 1823, p. 101. 
Lacerta olivieri, part., Aud. Deser. de ’ Higypte, Hist. Nat. i. ?1829, p.175, Suppl. pl. ii. figs. 1 & 2; 


M.-Edw. Ann. Sc. Nat. xvi. 1829, pp. 18 & 84, pl. vi. fig. 5. 


(Plate XXIII. figs. 3 & 4.) 


Eremias guttulata, D. & B. v. 1839, p. 310; Smith, Ill. Zool. S, Afr., Rept. 1849, pl. xlviii. figs. 8 & 
8a; A. Duméril, Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 181; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. 
(vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 38; Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. fiir Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878, p. 93; 
Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 308 ; Lortet, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, iii. 1883, p. 187; 
Tristram, West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 150; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 87; 


" Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 920 and figs. 


EREMIAS GUTTULATA. 175 


Trans. Linn. Soc., Zool. v. 1889, p. 99; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 182; Fauna Brit. Ind., 
Rept. & Batr. 1890, p. 177, fig. 52; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 551; 
Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 15; op. cit. 1895, p. 646; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, 
pp. 43 & 103; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 8; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. 
Ges. Wien, xliv. 1895, p. 82; op. cit. xlv. 1896, p. 16; Boettger, op. cit. xlvi. 1896, p. 278. 

Scapteira punctulata, Gray, Ann. N. H. i. 1838, p. 281. 

Eremias pardalis, D. & B. v. 1889, p. 312; Smith, Ill. S. Afr. Zool., Rept. 1849, pl. xlviii. 
figs. 13, 18a, & 136; Lefebvre, Voy. Abyss., Zool. vi. 1845-50, p. 203; Gervais, Ann. Sc. 
Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 204; Guichenot, Explor. Algér., Sc. Phys. Zool. v. 1850, p. 15, pl. 1. 
fig. 2; A. Duméril, Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 129; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. 
(vil. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 389; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 271; Westphal-Castelnau, 
Cat. Coll. Rept. 1869, p. 21; Miller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vi. 1878, p. 625. 

Lacerta (Eremias) guttulata, Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 304. 

Mesalina pardalis, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 43; Blanf. Hast. Persia, Zool. 1876, p. 377; 
Murray, Zool. Sind, 1884, p. 350. 

Eremias (Mesalina) watsonana, Stol. Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1872, p. 86. 

Mesalina watsonana, Murray, Zool. Sind, 1884, p. 349. 

Mesalina guttulata, Blanf. Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xlviii. pt. 11. 1879, p. 127. 

Podarces (Mesalina) simoni, Boettger, Zool. Anz. 1881, p.571; Abh. Senck. Ges. xii. 1884, p. 116, 
pl. 1. fig. 3. 

Fremias (Mesalina) balfouri, Blanf. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 467. 

Eremias guttata, Hart, Fauna and Flora of Sinai &c. 1891, p. 210. 

Eremias martini, Blgr. Ann. & Mag. N. H. (16) xix. 1897, p. 467. 


1g. Plain of Suez. 

1g. Maryut District. 

1g. Plain of Kafr Gamus. 

29. Wadi Hoaf, near Heluan. 

1g and1¢. Fayum. Dr. J.C. Mitchell. 
1g. Beni Hassan. W. M. Blackden, Esq. 
4 gand 7 ¢?. Margin of desert, Luxor. 

7 gand8 ?. Ruins of Karnak. 

2gand3 2. Ruins of Medinet Habu. 
2¢@. Assuan. Major D. F. Lewis. 


1g and1 ¢?. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
5 gand3 ¢. Durrur. Major-General A. Hunter, D.S.O. 
1g. Erkowit Mountains. 

Gye kalke 


Snout rather pointed. Nasals more or less swollen; frontonasal excluded from the 
rostral by the nasals which form a suture of variable length; frontonasal and frontal 
more or less grooved; two prefrontals; four supraoculars ; the first and fourth small, 
the former occasionally divided and the latter not unfrequently broken up into granules ; 


176 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


four to six superciliaries, with a line of granules between them and the second and third 
supraoculars ; interparietal considerably smaller than a frontoparietal, in contact with 
the occipital; usually two loreals, rarely three, exceptionally four; the subocular enters 
the labial margin between the fourth and fifth labials, but occasionally between the 
third and fourth, and fifth and sixth; transparent ocular disk generally broken up into 
small pieces, usually two ; ear not denticulated ; temporals smooth, granular ; the anterior 
pairs of chin-shields in contact. A transverse gular fold ; collar attached at the middle, 
feebly developed in some. Dorsal scales juxtaposed, almost granular, slightly increased 
in size between the thighs and sometimes obtusely keeled in that region; 42 to 61 
across the middle of the body including the ventrals. Ventrals generally nearly as broad 
as long, in 8 to 10 longitudinal series; 26 to 35 in the mesial line from the collar to the 
pores ; preanal plate large, with a semicircle of smaller plates; 10 to 15 femoral pores. 
Limbs well developed, longer in the males than in the females, the hind limb in the 
former reaches between the shoulder and the ear, and in the latter to near the 
shoulder. Tail sometimes less than twice the length of the head and body, but 
generally more than twice as long. Caudal scales more or less feebly keeled above, 
smooth below at the base of the tail, but afterwards obtusely keeled. 

Greyish olive or olive-brown above, covered with spots usually arranged somewhat 
in longitudinal series, one half of a spot being generally black and the other half 
white: the spots all but disappear in some; in others there are longitudinal pale 
lines or bands along the sides, one arising behind the ear and the other over it, each 
margined above by a deep brown band. Under surface generally white, but the throat 
sometimes dusky, and all the ventrals and under surface of the limbs finely punctulated 
with the same colour. Others are irregularly spotted with black, forming more or less 
confluent spots, while in some there is a grey line along the mesial line of the back, 
with dark markings on either side of it. 

This and the following species are usually to be met with amid sparse vegetation 
and loose stones. 

This species and L. rubropunctata lay five or six eggs in January, but both probably 
breed at other periods of the year as well. On the 24th of that month, I have 
measured eggs 10 millim. long and 6 broad, but in none of them was there any trace 
of an embryo. ‘The smallest of the gravid females of this species was 47 millim., 
and the largest 53 millim. from snout to vent. 

Lichtenstein assigned this species to Egypt and Nubia. I have found it in Lower 
Egypt associated with E. rubropunctata. It is common in Upper Egypt, at Durrur on 
the shores of the Red Sea, on the plateau of Erkowit to the west of Suakin, and at 
Akik to the east of Tokar. It occurs in the Sinaitic Peninsula and Arabia, and 
ranges northwards to Southern Syria, and through Persia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, 
S.E. Turkestan to Sind. It apparently extends across the whole of Northern Africa 
from the Red Sea to the shores of the Atlantic at Morocco. 


EREMIAS GUTTULATA. 


ILE 


As will be seen from the following table, Z. guttulata is subject to a considerable 
range of variation in the number of the scales round the body in the 101 individuals 


recorded :— 


E. guttulata, Licht. (with measurements in millim.), arranged according to the 
number of the scales round the body, including the ventrals. 


Sex. 


e  4r2) tk) 1K) GH KO) go) Xo) KO), 


Snout 
to 
vent. 


42 


Tail. 


~T 
“N 


73 


102 


110 


Scales 

round 

body, 
including 
ventrals. 


Mesial lon- 
gitudinal 
line of 
ventrals. 


30 


Position of 
subocular 
between 
labials. 


Femoral 
pores. 


12 


Locality. 


Durur. 

Suakin. Figured. 
Durrur. 

Mt. Sinai. 

Suakin. 

Hadramut. 

Erkowit. 

Obok. Type of £. martini, Blgr. 
Luxor. 

Akik, Suakin. 
Durrur. 

Aden. 

Triphul, Afghanistan. 
Socotra. 

Suez. 

Karnak. 

Socotra. 

Luxor, desert margin. 
Karnak. 


Durrur. 


1 


78 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


CEO Bae OS Wat Cet ©) a © ELT) SE) CS Ss ©) CT) OS ) @) nS © CSL ©) SL ©) ct ©) RS Lt) CL) EE) 


Tail. 


98 


98 
80 


110 


Scales 
round 
body, 
including 
ventrals. 


50 
50 
50 
51 
51 
51 
51 
51 
51 
51 
51 
51 
51 


Mesial lon- 
gitudinal 
line of 
ventrals. 


33 
30 
34 
27 


30 
30 
29 
3l 
31 
26 
31 


Position of 

subocular 
between 
labials. 


Femoral 
pores. 


QW FILO wiles 


le BIS 


SS 
1S 


aa 
ee 


lm el 
ye 


a 
on 


Joey spe ye 
prin le RIE El 


we 
to ce 


ls Sle ul 


(iS = 
wow 


— 


Be wilt wih 


| 


ip SES 
Siko elie we 


yf] 
w 


bo 


Locality. 


Mt. Sinai. 
Hydrabad, Sind. 
Mogador, Morocco. 
Kafr Gamus. 


Luxor. 


Mt. Sinai. 


” 


Gwadar, Baluchistan. 


Socotra. 
Luxor. 

Karnak. 
Fayum. 


Karnak. 


” 
Assuan. 


Durrur. 


Mt. Sinai. 


Karman, 8.E. Persia. 


E. simon. 


EREMIAS GUTTULATA. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


179 


Sex. 


1) 1 1 Ch Qh G& 49 1% O 4 


OS © Set © en) OO 


Snout 
to 
vent. 


45 


Tail. 


93 


83 
109 


107 


113 


Scales 

round 

body, 
including 
ventrals. 


Mesial lon- 
gitudinal 
line of 
ventrals, 


31 


Position of 

subocular 
between 
labials. 


Femoral 
pores. 


Locality. 


Quetta, Baluchistan. 
Askabad. 

Puli Hatun, trans-Caspian. 
Gabes, Tunisia. 

Tibremt. 

Tuggurt. 


Luxor. 


Karnak. 

Luxor. 

Karnak. 

Medinet Habu. 

Philee. 

Mount Sinai. 

Dasht, Baluchistan. 
Helmund, Baluchistan. 
Duirat. 

Laghouat. 

Mogador, Morocco. 

Beni Hassan. 

Assuan. Gravid, 24. 1. 92. 
N.Africa. Berlin Museum. Type 


of Mesalina lichtenstenti, Gray. 
Neba Musa Hill, Dead Sea. 


Ispahan, between Shiraz and 
Teheran. 

Gwadar, Baluchistan. 

Copt Dagh, Askabad. 

Wadi Hoaf, Heluan. 


Luxor. 


2A 2 


180 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


ee Seales {aesial 1on-| Position of 
Sex. to Mails |) tooedys Ot fSuUaina Ae ow asa |e Memnere| Locality. 
vent inoluding | ventrals. | labial. | 
@ 2.) fk 55 31 4&5 | 73 | Karnak. 
6 coool - 55 30 ARB | = : 
tore eel eS 70 55 29 4&5 | 1 | Gwadar, Baluchistan. 
@ , 50 ~ 55 30 4&5 i; | Hydrabad, Sind. 
@ . 44 re 56 29 4&5 | Wadi Hoaf, Heluan. 
OG % 47 as 56 27 4&5 = Luxor. 
Q 56 96 56 33 ARB | + »  Gravid, 13. 2. 92. 
Q. 51 i 56 32 4&5 | yy | Karnak. 
Sil: 49 s 56 28 4&5 | 1 | Medinet Habu. 
Q . ® | 0p | 63a | e 4&5 | 33 | Mount Sinai. 
a: 37 56 a |G C8 | 35 | Sinaitic Peninsula, 
OF k 44 92 57 29 4&5 = Fayum. 
@ . 44 2 57 33 4&5 | 75 | Medinet Habu. 
OMe 47 57 34 4&5 5 Jerusalem. 
Go 47 98 57 27 4&5 a Gwadar, Baluchistan. 
one 50 85 57 31 AES | \ Sind 
a. 47 ¥4 57 30 4&5 = ‘ 
one 47 . 58 30 4&5 | 3% | Medinet Habn. 
Or 42 76 58 30 4&5 a S.E. of Karman, Persia, 
a 41 91 58 nb 4&5 © | Puggurt. 
oe 51 se 59 30 4&5 | 74 | Medinet Habu, 
O 43 2 59 33 4&5 | | Jerusalem. 
ie: 40 ‘ 59 29 4&5 | 75 | Susa, Tunisia. 
Os 44 92 60 27 5&6 3 | Maryut District. 
one 49 ‘ 61 30 4&5 | 45 | Beersheba. 


EREMIAS GUTTULATA. 181 


It will be observed that the highest number of scales met with in the Suakin-Durrur 
district is 52, and the lowest 42. In the valley of the Nile the scales may fall as low 
as 47 and rise to 60. Although the difference between 52 and 60 is considerable, still 
there can be no question as to the specific identity of lizards from the Suakin-Durrur 
district presenting the lowest lepidosis with those from the Nile valley with the highest 
number of scales. As some of the Suakin-Durrur lizards are sandy-coloured, with dark 
and pale longitudinal streaks and black and white spots on the back, the contrast that 
they present to the typical form, more especially when the latter is of a bluish-green 
tint and almost immaculate (compare figs. 3 and 4 on Plate XXIII.), is most striking. 
The difference of coloration between these two extremes, as in the great gap between 
42 and 60 scales, is thoroughly bridged over by other individuals presenting inter- 
mediate characters. I have therefore had no course left me but to regard all the 
lizards tabulated as specifically identical. In arriving at this conclusion I have, thanks 
to the courtesy of Mr. Boulenger, been enabled to examine the type of E. martini, 
Blgr., from Obok, which does not appear to me to be separable from this species. 

Among 97 specimens in the accompanying table (pp. 177-180), all of African or 
Asiatic origin, 36 have been ascertained to be males, and 56 to be females. The largest 
male measures 49 millim. from snout to vent, whereas out of the remainder only 7 of 
them attain to 47 millim. ; while on the other hand 11 of the females are over 50 millim. 
in length, one even reaching 56 millim. long. ‘The insular variety from the island of 
Socotra appears to attain to a slightly larger size, and, moreover, it is somewhat more 
robust than the typical form, and has the ocular disk quite as much broken up as in 
the Suakin-Durrur individuals. 

As any variation in the position of the nasals is rare, it may be mentioned that in 
one of the specimens from Suakin (Plate X XIII. fig. 4) the posterior nasal is excluded 
from entering into the free margin of the nostril. The normal number of loreals is 
two, but in one individual I have observed as many as four, viz. two anteriorly, one 
above the other, behind the nasals, and two in longitudinal series following them. 
Another variation of these shields is three in a line, but this also has been noticed 
only in a single instance ; and another abnormality is for the frontonasal to send down 
a process separating the two loreals. In one individual from Mount Sinai there are 
two frontonasals, one before the other—a quite abnormal condition. 

I have examined the condition of the transparent palpebral disk in 99 specimens 
from North Africa, Asia, and the island of Socotra. In the plain of Suez, the 
Maryut District, and the desert at Heluan the disk is divided into five pieces, two in 
longitudinal series corresponding to the upper half of the disk, with three similarly 
arranged but much smaller pieces below them, while in one, from the last-mentioned 
locality, the lower section of the disk is divided into four pieces. In one specimen 
from the plain of Kafr Gamus the disk is divided vertically in its middle, thus resolving 
it into two lateral portions. This form of disk occurs in 24 out of 25 specimens from 


182 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


the Luxor district. In the exception the disk consists of three pieces. Disks of this 
kind also occur at Beni Hassan in Middle Egypt. Two out of 4 specimens from 
Medinet Habu conform to the Luxor type of disk, one to the form found at Suez, 
Maryut and Heluan, while in the fourth the disk is divided into two lower and two 
upper pieces. At Assuan and Phile the formula is =, as at Suez &c. At Durrur 
seven out of eight have the disk consisting only of two pieces, as im the Luxor 
specimens, while in one it is broken up into as many as 7 pieces, thus 2. This 
much divided form of disk also occurs in the only two specimens I have from Suakin, 
in one from Erkowit, and in another from Akik, 

Out of 52 specimens from the foregoing Egyptian localities, 37 have the palpebral 
disk divided in two vertically, while 15 have it composed of more than that number ; 
hence the former number, from its prevalence, may be regarded as distinctive of Egypt, 
but more especially of Upper Egypt and the Eastern Sudan. It is also found in 
lizards from Baluchistan, Eastern and South-eastern Persia, Afghanistan, and Turkestan. 
In Sind, the upper half of the disk is divided into two unequal pieces, the anterior of 
which is twice as large as the posterior, and has below it a piece of nearly its own 
length, while a small portion is interposed at the point where they meet ; but in other 
lizards from the same locality the palpebral disk resembles that prevailing at Heluan 
and the plain of Suez. ‘There are still, however, further modifications found in Sind, 
but they follow much the same kind of division as is present in the Suez example. 

At Gabes, in Tunisia, a form of disk different from all the foregoing is met with, as 
it consists of four pieces, an anterior and posterior and a superior and inferior, more or 
less symmetrical in their disposition and size; on the other hand, at Susa, in the same 
region, the disk is divided into six nearly equal-sized pieces, the posterior portion the 
largest and common to the upper and lower sections of the disk, with two pieces 
anterior to it superiorly and three inferiorly. Disks of nearly the same type are met 
with at Laghouat and at Tuggurt, and they are only slight modifications of what 
occurs at Medinet Habu, which is also the case with the disk of the Morocco lizards 
described by Boettger as H. simoni. ‘Ten examples from Tunisia, the Algerian Sahara, 
and Morocco have been examined by me, and in only one of them, viz. a specimen 
from Tibremt, is the disk composed of two pieces, as in lizards of Upper Egypt; in 
all the others it is broken up into three or six pieces. A nearly similarly divided 
palpebral disk is found in the Socotran variety. 

From the foregoing facts it is evident that the division of the palpebral disk is 
the subject of great variation. It is most stable in Upper Egypt, the Eastern Sudan, 
Persia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, and Turkestan, and most variable in Lower Egypt, 
the Sinaitic Peninsula, Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the Algerian Sahara, Morocco, Socotra, 
and Sind. 


EREMIAS RUBROPUNCTATA. 183 


EREMIAS RUBROPUNCTATA, Licht. (Plate XXIII. figs. 5 & 6.) 


Lacerta rubropunctata, Licht. Verz. Doubl. Mus. Berl. 1828, p. 100; Fitz. Neue Class. Rept. 1826, 
p. 51. 

Scapteira nebulosa, Gray, Aun. & Mag. N. H. i. 1838, p. 281. 

Mesalina lichtensteinii, Gray, |. c. p. 282. 

Eremias rubropunctata, Dum. & Bibr. v. 1839, p. 297 ; Smith, Ill. Zool. S. Afr., Rept. (1849) 
pl. xlviii. figs. 9 & 9a; Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. fiir Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878, p. 93; Bler. 
Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 89; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p.308; Boettger, Cat. Rept. 
Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 92; Anderson, Herp. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 108. 

Mesalina rubropunctata, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 43. 

Lacerta (Eremias) rubropunctata, Riipp. Mus. Senck. ui. 1845, p. 804. 

? Eremias guttolineata, Hart, Fauna and Flora of Sinai &c, 1891, p. 210. 


1g and4 2. Stony plain, east of Suez Canal. 

2g and1 2. Plaim of Kafr Gamus. 

1 @. Margin of desert, Gizeh. The late V. Ball, Esq., C.B. 

8 g and3 9. Margin of desert, Gizeh. 

1¢. Desert, Heluan. 

19. Ras Gharib. Mr. James Robertson. 

1 g and2 ?. Tel el Amarna. 

3 6 and3 ¢. Oasis of Khargeh. Professor Sickenberger, Cairo. 


Snout rather pointed ; nasals much swollen; frontonasal in contact with the rostral, 
either broadly or narrowly, and rarely separated from it by the upper nasals ; frontonasal 
and frontal slightly grooved; two preefrontals ; two supraoculars; six or seven super- 
ciliaries, with a varying number of granules between them and the second supraocular ; 
interparietal slightly smaller than a frontoparietal, in contact with the occipital; two 
loreals, the anterior narrow and elongate; subocular enters the labial margin usually 
between the fourth and fifth labials; transparent ocular disk broken up even to as 
many as seven pieces. Ear not denticulated; temporals smooth, granular; the anterior 
pairs of chin-shields in contact; a feeble transverse gular fold; collar more or less 
attached in the mesial line. Dorsal scales minute, granular, rounded, juxtaposed, 
and smooth; 65 to 78 scales round the middle of the body including the ventrals. 
Ventrals rather small, arranged in longitudinal lines, 51 to 37 in the mesial line from 
the collar to before the inner end of the line of femoral pores; 12 in transverse series, 
rarely 10; each plate generally nearly as broad as long, the two mesial rows have 
their lateral borders more or less convergent ; a large transversely broad preanal plate, 
with a semicircle of enlarged plates around it. 13 to 19 femoral pores. Limbs well 
developed, longer in the males than in the females ; the hind limb in the former reaches 
to the shoulder or to between the shoulder and the ear. ‘Tail usually once and a half 
as long as the body and head, sometimes once and two-thirds, but never twice as long ; 


caudal scales keeled above, smooth below. 


184 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Greyish olive above, occasionally dark leaden grey, spotted with reddish or brownish 
to a varying extent, but never profusely ; spots sometimes continued on to the sides of 
the tail as brown bars; feet and digits generally yellowish, also the rostrals and nasals. 
Under surface white. 


E. rubropunctata, Licht. (with measurements in millim.), arranged according 
to the number of the scales round the body, including the ventrals. 


Snout Boal Mesial lon-| Position of 
Sex ie Tail. awk gitudinal | subocular | Femoral Tocaln 
: vent including line ot between pores. ue 
; ara paallsy ventrals. labials. 
CHa 54 2.0 65 34 4&5 = Oasis of Khargeh. 
Ett 47 78 67 37 4&5 iA | Pel el Amarna. 
Go 47 2 68 34 4&5 | 72 | Kafr Gamus. 
5&6 16 
Q . 45 67 68 34 { eee iy | Heluan. 
one 47 é 70 | 32 | 4&5 | ie | Desert, Gizeh. 
a 45 | 75 70 - | 405 | 2 Bis 
4&5 14 
nas 46 70 34 { ae it | Suez. 
ee 55 97 70 32 4&5 | 72 | Oasis of Khargeh. 
QO. 51 70 36 4&5 12 | Tel el Amarna. 
3 46 71 34 4&5 i, | Desert, Gizeh. 
Q 44 J 71 32 4&5 = Egypt. (Scapteira nebulosa,Gray.) 
Juv. ..| 34 a6 al 34 4&5 a N. Africa. (L. rubropunctata, 
4&5 16 Licht., from Berlin Museum.) 
3 49 86 72 35 16 &6 is Desert, Gizeh. 
b 15 
fe) 43 72 34 4&5 iB ~ es 
G necal 2 ie 72 35 4&5 2 | Kafr Gamus. 
9 44 72 P| es 465 | 7 | Suez. 
9 47 79 72 4&5 iy | Ras Gtharib. 
= i 15 
Juv. ..| 35 55 72 33 4&5 iz | Eeypt. 
Q 58 72 37 : ; fi Oasis of Khargeh. 
< = 4&5 15 
® seool BD 70 72 36 Ean a is in 
Q 45 73 34 4&5 a Kafr Gamus. (Gravid.) 


EREMIAS RUBROPUNCTATA. 185 


Measurements &e. (continued). 


| 
Soars | se Mesial lon-| Position of 
Sex. tou Tail. __ body, § eae puro ae Femoral Locality. 
| ee tngluding ventrals, labials. pokes. 
| ; 
| 
Q 42 i 73 35 4&5 | Suez. 
3 44 78 73 33 4&5 ze Egypt. (Scapteira nebulosa,Gray.) 
3 46 79 74 31 4&5 Desert, Gizeh. 
: y oy Lf 18 
é 50 nee 74 33 4&5 ig 4 ae 
é 41 74 74 33 4&5 = Sinaitic Peninsula. 
é 45 80 75 33 4&5 = Desert, Gizeh. 
fi 
Q 50 78 75 34 4&5 = i: * 
0 
EP ocellnss} et 75 34 5&6 = Mount Sinai. 
oO 
Q 55 90 76 36 4&5 = Desert, Gizeh. 
3 53 76 76 37 4&5 i Oasis of Khargeh. 
fe) 51 UE 35 | : . 2 = Desert, Gizeh. 
: 5&6 15 Nhe 
9 45 71 17 35 { re 12 | Suez. 
3 50 89 78 35 4&5 16) | Desert.) Gizeh: 
16 
Q 56 85 78 38 4&5 16 | Oasis of Khargeh. 
9 49 78 78 37 { pee 1 | Tel el Amarna. 


The upper labials are variable, as the subocular, which in the majority is between 
the 4th and dth, is occasionally between the 5th and 6th upper labials, but only 
asymmetrically, except in the case of an individual from Mount Sinai. In all, the 
collar is attached at the middle either by the mesial scale or by one or more on 
either side of it, but the fine granules of the fold are prolonged on, under the 
scales, nearly to the mesial line; it is least attached in the specimen from ‘Tel el 
Amarna. There is considerable variation in the extent to which the rostral is 
in contact with the frontonasal. In ten specimens, in which all the localities are 
represented, these two shields form a distinct suture, but in six others, and in one from 
the Wells of Moses, the two shields meet only in a fine point. In two specimens from 
Gizeh the nasals form a suture in the mesial line separating the rostral from the fronto- 


nasal. In one specimen from the oasis of Khargeh there are only 10 ventrals. 
2B 


186 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Lichtenstein, in his description of the species, mentions Egypt and Nubia as the 
areas of its distribution. It is common in Lower Egypt in the localities enumerated in 
the foregoing list of specimens, and is present also in Middle Egypt (Tel el Amarna to 
Ras Gharib); but although £. guttulata is associated with it in Lower and Middle 
Egypt, it is noteworthy that my collection does not contain a single specimen from 
the desert on either side of the Nile, to the south of Tel el Amarna. It is common, 
however, in the oasis of Khargeh, to the west. It ranges northwards through the 
Sinaitic Peninsula to El Ghor, at the southern end of the Dead Sea, and also into 
Arabia. ‘To the west of Egypt it has been recorded by Peters from Sokna, in Tripoli, 
and by Boettger from near Ouargla, in the Algerian Sahara. 

The ancient Egyptians occasionally preserved certain small species of lizards as 
mummies, and kept them in wooden or metal boxes. The top of the box generally 
had a representation on it, in relief, of the lizard preserved within. ‘These figures, 
however, were either so rudely executed, or have become so indistinct by age, that | 
have found it impossible to do more than guess at the genus. Some of them have 
suggested the genus Hremias, others Chalcides. They were possibly used as charms. 


Synopsis of Egyptian Species of Kremias. 


I. Lower nasal divided; nostril defined by four nasals. Ventrals in 6 or 8 

longitudinal series. Lower eyelid scaly; nasals in contact behind 
WOM 5 6 es 6 6 @ o oa 8 0 81S « o 6 > 6 Se oe b 0 JH GmerOD. 

II. Lower nasal undivided ; nostril defined by three nasals. 

a. Ventrals in 8 or 10 longitudinal series ; subocular enters labial margin. 
Lower eyelid transparent; upper nasals in contact behind rostral . . 4. guttulata. 

6. Ventrals in 12 longitudinal series, rarely 10; subocular enters labial 

margin. Lower eyelid transparent; rostral in contact with fronto- 


iMellG 6 Bo a 6 6 61 8 6 Oo 6 0 6 6 0 5 0 0 6 0 dey PURP MOM, 


MABUIA QUINQUETANIATA. 187 


SCINCIDA. 


MABUIA. 
Mabuia, part., Fitz. Neue Class. Rept. 1826, p. 23; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p, 150. 


Limbs well developed; digits 5—5, more or less cylindrical or compressed, with 
transverse lamelle below. Nostril in a single nasal. Eyelids movable ; lower eyelid 
with a more or less transparent disk, either undivided or broken up. Ear distinct ; 
tympanum deeply sunk. Postnasal present or absent ; supranasals, prefrontals, and 
frontoparietals present; interparietal single or double, generally distinct, occasionally 
confluent with the parietals. Palatine bones in contact in the middle line of the 
palate; pterygoids with or without teeth, separated by the palatal notch which is 
prolonged forwards mesially to the centre line of the orbits. Maxillary teeth either 
with conical or with bicuspid crowns. 


MABUIA QUINQUETHNIATA, Licht. (Plate XXIV. figs. 1-3.) 


Scincus quingueteniatus, Licht. Verz. Doubl. Mus. Berl. 1823, p. 103. 

Mabuya quinqueteniata, Fitz. Neue Class. Rept. 1826, p. 52. 

Scincus savignyi, Aud. Descr. de Egypte, Hist. Nat.i. ?1829, p. 177, Suppl. pl. ii. figs. 3. 1-3. 4, et 
var. fig. 4.1. 

Tiliqua quinquestriata, Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H. ii. 1838, p. 290. 

Euprepes savignyi, Dum. & Bibr. v. 1839, p. 677; Gravenh. N. Acta Leop.-Carol. xxni, 185], i. 
p- 829, pl. xxxiii.; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1854, p. 618; Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. 1. 1876, 
p- 109; Lortet, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, iii. 1888, p. 187; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom. 
Zool. 1896, p. 35. 

Euprepes quinqueteniatus, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 112; Riippell, Mus. Senck. 11. 1845, 
p- 304; Blanf. Zool. Abyss. 1870, p. 456; Steindach. Unger & Kotschy, Insel Cypern, 1865, 
p. 573. 

Euprepes margaritifer, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1854, p. 618; Bocage, Jorn. Sc. Lisb. iv. 1872, 
p. 80. 

Euprepes (Euprepes) margaritifer, Peters, Reise n. Mossamb. iii. 1882, p. 64, pl. x. fig. 1. 

Euprepis gularis, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 61. 

Euprepis kirkii, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 62, pl. ix. fig. 1. 

Euprepes binotatus, Bocage, Jorn. Se. Lisb. 1867, p. 230, pl. 3. fig. 5. 

Mabuia quinqueteniata, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iti. 1887, p. 198; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, 
Xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 551; op. cit. xvii. (xxxvil.) 1897, p. 278; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 215; 
Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 100; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 
1896, p. 104, 


©) 


2B2 


188 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


2 g and1 9. Gardens and roadside, Gabari, Alexandria. 

1 g and1 2. Abbasiyeh, near Cairo. Major-General H. M. L. Rundle, D.S.O., C.M.G. 
1 $,62,and1juv. Alluvium, below Gizeh Pyramids. 

12 and 3. The Fayum. 

1 g andl. The Fayum. Major R. H. Brown, R.E. 

4% and1@. Tel el Amarna. 

5 g and8 . Roadsides, Assiut. 

49. Banks of Nile, Edfu. 

2g and2 9. Banks of Nile, Assuan. 

26 and1@. Banks of Nile, Phile. 

2¢6 and] 2. Wadi Halfa. Major Henry d’Alton Harkness. 

3g and29. Wadi Halfa. O. Charlton, Esq. 

24$,29,and2juv. Wadi Halfa. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
1 2. Suakin. 


Snout moderately long; its length equals the distance between the hinder angle 
of the eye and the posterior border of the ear or slightly exceeds it; nostril placed 
behind or over the rostro-labial suture; a postnasal resting on the first labial ; 
supranasals in contact behind the rostral; anterior loreal generally not in contact 
with the first labial, but not unfrequently feebly so (Egypt); frontonasal variable, 
sometimes nearly as broad as long, and in others broader than long, usually 
excluded from contact with the frontal by the preefrontals, rarely touching the frontal ; 
frontal generally equals the conjoint length of the frontoparietals and interparietal, 
its lateral borders much convergent, in contact with the first to the third supra- 
oculars or only with the second and third; the parietals meeting behind the 
interparietal or rarely separated by it; a pair of nuchals; four supraoculars; five or 
six superciliaries ; six or eight upper labials, generally the fifth, but occasionally the 
sixth, entering the orbit. Lower eyelid with a transparent disk. Har about the 
length of the eye, with 3 to 5, rarely 6 or 7, short lobules at its anterior border, the 
largest being about the centre of the series, triangular and obtusely pointed. Dorsal 
scales strongly tricarinate; the nuchals with 4 or 5 feeble carine. ‘Thirty-five 
to forty-two scales round the middle of the body; the median dorsal scales are 
the largest. The fore limb when laid forwards reaches to nearly the nostril or 
may fall short of that distance; the hind limb is generally longer than the interval 
between the axilla and the groin, but not unfrequently shorter; digital lamellx 
generally smooth, but occasionally with a feeble mesial keel. ‘Tail variable, once 
and a half to once and two-thirds as long as the body and head. 

Brown above, with five yellow or whitish longitudinal bands, three dorsal and two 
lateral, continued on to the base of the tail, and all more or Jess margined with black. 
Three dark bars or spots, more or less surrounded with white, occur behind the ear on the 
area between the upper and lower lateral white bands ; they are intensely deep bluish 
black in the male during the breeding-season, when the whole under surface of the head 


cunkey 2 SLT 
: VIVLLIA VIN VIN 


THEH IAN “ant € “Big Sempurxepy ©s z-Suy SeyeH wear <P 1 Seq 
VIVINWLEINONINO VINAVW 


ss she ee 
aie 


ae 


es 
Canoe eo 


“AIXX Td 4disq jo sopnday 


MABUIA QUINQUETANIATA. 189 


from the chin to the chest and the sides of the neck are intensely black, more or less 
spotted with bluish or bluish white, and the lower yellowish-white longitudinal band 
which begins at the sides of the nostril is, occasionally, orange-yellow as far back as 
the shoulder, suffused with blue and spotted with yellow. The five yellowish dorsal 
bands, irequently in adults and more especially in males, become entirely lost or 
only faintly indicated. The young are always longitudinally banded. The females 
are always much less intensely coloured than the males, and the throat is never 
black but is generally spotted with dusky blue or brownish purple. Upper surfaces 
of the limbs usually uniform brown, but spotted with yellow in breeding males. 
Under surface generally yellowish white, with occasionally some bluish spots on the 
sides of the belly, but in half-grown specimens and in the young, immaculate white. 
The upper surface of the tail paler than the back, with the white dorsal bands 
prolonged on to it in a varying degree; its base frequently suffused with vivid blue 
in half-grown specimens. 

This is the most common lizard in the Nile valley and is essentially a species of the 
alluvium. It abounds along the banks of the Nile, along canals and embankments, on 
roadsides, and about villages. At Edfu, some boys collected 60 in two hours. It 
produces 7 eggs on an average at a time, and in the months of January and February 
the males are in their full breeding-colours. 

Dr. J. C. Mitchell has written to me that he has observed a curious habit on the 
part of a lizard which, from his description, I believe to be IZ. quinqueteniata. He says 
that “the British officers at the Mess House at Assuan often amused themselves on 
Friday mornings (their free day) by catching a few scorpions, which abound among the 
stones, and throwing them in proximity to one of these lizards, when it would, 
regardless of their presence, rush at a scorpion and attack it with great ferocity. The 
scorpion would erect his tail and watch every movement of his four-footed adversary, 
After many attempts to get at close quarters the lizard invariably bit the scorpion at 
the base of the tail, when the latter remained still as if paralyzed, and the former 
withdrew. Often the fight would go on under our breakfast table in the open 
air, and in many contests I witnessed I never saw a lizard stung ; but I could never 
discover marks of the lizard’s jaw on the scorpion, neither did the victor eat the 
vanquished.” 

M. quinqueteniata is distributed over tropical Africa, as it is present in Benguela, 
Senegal, Mozambique, Somaliland, Abyssinia, Eritrea, Suakin, and Wadi Halfa. Along 
the Nile valley it extends to the shores of the Mediterranean and into the Sinaitic 
Peninsula and Syria. It has also been recorded from Cyprus by Steindachner. 

The native name of the two Egyptian species of this genus is us)4> cls = sthliya 
khudari, which, I am told, means the lizard of the green beans, possibly from its habit 
of frequenting the fields on the alluvium. 


190 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements in millim. of M. quinqueteniata, Licht., with the variations in its 
scaling and in the number of its ear-lobules. 


Snout Front | Fore limb| Axilla | Hind Noses 
See | io | EN CO ecrorcal || || easy || ee | eee |) Cate Locality. 
vent, snoat, Pesteriorly.| groin. [posteriorly. Body: 

@ no.) G4 || 1) |) 232 | ae | a | Be 1 | #3 | 40 | Alexandria, 

Gocc[| SS | ee |e | ey 4. | ee 1 | Bo | Sy . 

3 MH joo) |29 | se ies |) so Mea || Ss : 

Gooon| 7) 102 | 26 25 34 | 33 1 i 37 | Abbasiyeh, near Cairo. 

9 69 | 109 | 25 24 34 34 1 4 | 37 B ‘ 

Juv...| 44 aS 18 14:2 19-5 21:5 1 B 37 | Alluvium below Mena Hotel, Gizeh. 
2 55 | 71 | 20 19 26 nar ie WA |) 893 r i . 
) 58 | 75 | 21:5 | 18 26:3 | 29 1 4 | 36 ty i e 
) 62 | 97 | 245 | 21 27 30 1 4 | 37 ib a a 
3 67 | 99 | 24:8 | 93 34 32-5 l | BS | ss e rs y 
Q 68 | 108 | 27 23 31 34 1 A 33 if . ‘i 
9 69 | 80 | 27 24 31 33 1 4 | 38 Bs ; 
lo Ae || aby || 25 24 33 33:5 |) eS |. Bs " a ns 
Juv 53 21 184 | 24 26:2 1 4 38 | Fayum 

Hf.-gr| 63 24-6 | 21:2 | 29 31 1 5 | 388 is 

® cael) BB 22 18-4 | 255 | 27 1 3 | 86 . 

2 By || tir | 2 A Qe | ores We ea 8 | 

12 68 | 92 | 22 19-4 | 29 28:3 1 3) || (33 4 

Qaco| GB || 11O | 20 26 4 38 1 3 | 38 A 

le 91 35 | 28) a | is 7) a) 22) ash \meltel Ammarna 

3 87 | 122 | 33 29 41:5 | 40 1 3 || 85 fie 83 

lg 7 || ill |) Bey |) Oe 345 | 33-4 1 3 36 . 5 

|g....| 703] 119 | 26 25 36 | 34 1 A By may VE 

Q 70 26:5 | 25 32-4 | 33-5 1 4 | 38 we 

3 82 32:3 | 98 38 39 i 4 | 35 | Assiut. 


MABUIA QUINQUETANIATA. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Snout Front | Fore limb | Axilla | Hind 
Sex. | to | Tail. | Of fore) measured | to limb 
vent. limb to jposteriorly.| groin. posteriorly. 
Qesoal 7 || WA | Bs 25 35 35 
Gos 73 98 | 26 24 35 35 
Cou 72 28 26 32 38 
OVE 72 107 | 27:3 24:5 35°3 35 
Dopodl Gs 24 225 | 31 31 
G sc 61 82 | 24-4 235 27:5 31 
inte 60 87 | 24-5 19:5 26°5 29 
Quake 87 109 | 32:3 27-6 41:6 40 
Daye 85 120 | 32 28:2 41 39 
ORT 81 135 | 30 27 375 39 
Ques 76 117 | 29:5 26°5 36 37°5 
Go 87 139 | 31:2 33 41:6 39 
Gree 87 31 26:2 40 38 
Oise 87 111 | 28 26 39 37-7 
® coal Wy 28-2 | 27 37 37-5 
6G os 91 33 27 44 38 
Goce 86 31 27°8 43°5 39:5 
OFF 75 til |} 2s} 26 39 36 
foyaea 83 31:5 26-4 41 38 
Gi ce 87 140 | 32:5 29 41 39 
Ds ae 80 108 | 27-4 26:5 41 375 
Creo 86 34 30 38 40 
Gao Ue 28:5 26:4 34 34:5 
Oirsks 80 28 27 42 34 
@ oo 81- 41 | 31 26 39 38 
Q s6 79 26 26 4] 36 


Ear- 
lobules. 


No. of 
scales 
round 
body. 


Locality. 


191 


aa 
mo 


salen 


CUR BO OR Ot Bloo 


ao 
oe 


On He Col 


38 
38 
38 
37 
37 
38 
38 
38 
38 
37 
38 
36 
36 
38 
40 
40 
36 
40 
35 
36 
38 
38 


UG 


THE REPTILES 


OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Snout Front | Fore limb| Axilla | Hind No. of 
Sex. | to | Tail | oop ty | meusured | to | limb | rose ere. | curd 

vent. nn t. Posteriorly.| groin. posteriorly. : alaieaes 
Oancol 7 || 12A so 29 38 38 i + | 39 | Wadi Halfa. 
Texood| oy! 145 | 12 135 | 17 1 PNR one -s 
6. 75 | 129 | 29 25 34 36 eae > || 338) eee 
Juv...| 31:8) 50 | 12 11 13 15°6 1 Sele | i. 4 
Sosoal 76 28 24 36 36 ee | 637. 
g....| 75 | 193 | 298-7 | 25:3 | 34 35-7 1 Male LO ee 
Pee 84 | 118 | 29 27 39 39-5 1 = | 42 |Suakin. 


Among 5d Egyptian specimens, the first labial is more or less generally feebly in 
contact with the anterior loreal, in 22 cases; and, in 7, in contact with it only on one 


side of the head and not on the other. 
The following is a tabulated list of these variations :— 


It is subject to considerable variation in the extent to which the dorsal bands are 


No. of 
specimens. 


Su ©) (2) 


14 


Locality. 


Alexandria. 
Cairo. 

Gizeh. 

Fayum. 

Tel el Amarna. 
Assiut. 

Edfu. 

Assuan. 

Wadi Halfa. 


Suakin. 


Anterior loreal in 
contact with first 
labial on both sides. 


1 


Anterior loreal in 
contact with 
first labial only on 
one side. 


1 


1 


MABUIA VITTATA., 193 


developed. At Wadi Halfa especially there seems a tendency to their suppression, as 
in 17 out of 54 examples they were practically absent, but the lateral band was well 
developed and bright orange. In the remaining 17, the bands were generally distinct, 
but in a few only feebly developed. 

It is distinguished from the next species (J/. vittata) by its somewhat heavier body, 
greater size, longer limbs, the presence of a postnasal, the greater number of lobules in 
front of the ear, and by its more numerous body-scales. 


Masuia vitrara, Olivier. (Plate XXIV. fig. 4.) 


Scincus vittatus, Olivier, Voy. Emp. Oth. &c. iii. 1804, p. 103, Atlas, 2° livr. pl. 29. fig. 1; Aud. 
Descr. de l Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ?1829, p. 178, Suppl. pl. ii. figs. 5 & 5. 2. 

Scincus jomardii, Aud. op. cit. p. 178, Suppl. pl. 11. fig. 6. 

Euprepes olivierit, Dum. & Bibr. v. 1839, p. 674; Gravenh. N. Acta Ac. Leop.-Carol. xxiii. 1851, 
p. 327, pl. xxxil.; Gasco, Viagg. im Hgitto, pt. 1. 1876, p. 109. 

Euprepes vittatus, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vu. sér.) 1862, iv. no. 7, p. 43; Boettger, 
Zeitsch. ges. Natur. (Giebel) Berl. 1877, p. 288; part., Ber. Senck. Ges. 1879-81, p. 187; 
Tristram, West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 151. 

Euprepis (Euprepis) libanoticus, Peters, Mon. Berl. 1864, p. 51. 

Euprepes fellowsii (non Gray), Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 489. 

Euprepes (Euprepes) vittatus, Boettger, Kobelt, Reiseerin. Alg. u. Tunis, 1885, p. 470. 

Mabuia vittata, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 176; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 185; Ann. 
Mag. N. H. (6) 11. 1888, p. 505; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 16; Herpet. Arabia & 
Egypt, 1896, p. 104; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 118; Peracca, Boll. Mus. 
Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 8; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 1895, xliv. p. 83. 


1 g and 5. Gardens and roadside, Gabari, Alexandria. 


1. Margin of desert below Pyramids of Gizeh. 
1 g and2 92 and 2 others. Fayum. Major R. H. Brown, R.E. 


Snout rather short and blunt; its length equals the distance between the hinder 
angle of the eye and the posterior border of the ear, or slightly exceeds it ; nostril 
placed behind the rostro-labial suture ; postnasal absent or very rarely present ; supra- 
nasals meeting behind the rostral; anterior loreal in contact with the postlabial ; 
frontonasal considerably broader than long, generally touching the narrow anterior 
extremity of the frontal, but occasionally shut off from it by the prefrontals; the 
frontal equals or slightly exceeds the conjoint lengths of a frontoparietal and the 
interparietal, and is generally in contact with the second and third supraoculars, and 
sometimes with the first; parietals meet behind the interparietal, rarely separated 
by it; a pair of transversely elongated nuchals; four supraoculars, the second the 
largest, generally in contact with the prefrontal; four or five superciliaries, rarely six ; 

2.C 


194 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


seven upper labials, the fifth below the eye. Lower eyelid with a transparent disk. 
Kar oval, not much larger than the transparent disk of the eye, with 2 or 3 lobules at 
its anterior border, the upper the larger and triangular in form. Dorsal scales strongly 
tricarinate ; the nuchals with many feeble carine. Thirty to thirty-four rows of scales 
round the middle of the body, the median dorsal scales but very slightly larger than the 
lateral. The fore limb when laid forward reaches, as a rule, the middle of the eye, but 
in some it is only halfway between the ear and the eye; the hind limb is invariably 
considerably shorter than the interval between the axilla and the groin; subdigital 
lamellee smooth. ‘Tail once and a half as long as the body and head, sometimes less. 

Dark olive-brown above: a broadish, pale, mesial, dorsal band, edged with black, 
from the nape to the base of the tail; on each side a very narrow pale lateral line, 
sometimes white and more or less edged with black, from the side of the neck to the 
base of the tail; and another, somewhat broader, from in front of and below the eye, 
through the ear, and along the side to the tail, edged above and below with black ; 
plates of the head, and frequently the dorsal scales, edged with brownish black ; under- 
parts yellowish white, with a greenish tinge. 


Measurements in millim. of M. vittata, Oliv., with the variations in its scales 
and in the number of its ear-lobules. 


Snout Fore | Fore limb| Axilla | Hind limb E Scales 
See) ae | acct 0 ae ae 
e) 68 =A 22:8 16:2 38:5 24-8 0 2 32 | Alexandria. 
3 60 22 16 6| 342) 25-9 0 9 || os ie 
3 | 61 84 | 21:3 15°5 338 24:5 0 2 32 9 
3 61 103 | 22 14:8 33°5 23 (0) 2 33 9 
g 60 21 149 | 34 22-5 0 DQ | 3 i 
Q 57 84 | 20 15 30 24 0 2 34 | Gizeh, alluvium. 
3 66 108 21°5 15 34 25 0 2 34 | Fayum. 
Q....| 57 | 100 | 19:5| 142 | 305) 28 0 2 | 32 2 
@...41 63 | tp | 20 15 30 22 0 2liegs 4 
Q....| 615 | .. | 205] 155 | 345] 245 0 2 | 32 - 
Juy...| 43 Ge a 23:2] 16 0 2 | 34 . 


This scink is not rare on the roadsides and in the gardens outside Alexandria, and to 


MABUIA VITTATA. 195 


the east it is found on the sands at Rosetta, where Olivier obtained the types. It is less 
common around Cairo, but it is well represented in the Fayum. It ranges westwards 
from Egypt to Tunisia, Algeria, and the Algerian Sahara, and northwards through 
Palestine and Syria to the island of Cyprus. 


Synopsis of Eqyptian Species of Mabuia. 


35-42 scales round body. Postnasal present. Frontonasal usually separated 
I y sep 


from the frontal. 38 to 7 short ear-lobules . . . . . . . . . . MM. quinqueteniata. 
30-34 scales round body. Postnasal absent. F'rontonasal in contact with the 
nomial Borscarloogules o o 6 o 5 50 6 «9 8 0 0 0 6 0 0 WV Oar 


196 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


EUMECES. 


Eumeces, Wiegm. Arch. f. Nat. 1835, ii. p. 288. 

Limbs well developed; digits 5—5, more or less cylindrical or compressed, with 
transverse lamelle below, and not serrated laterally. Nostril in a single nasal, occa- 
sionally vertically divided in two. Kyelids well developed, scaly. ar distinct; 
Supranasals present; postnasal present or absent; pre- 
Palatine bones not in contact 
Lateral teeth conical or 


tympanum deeply sunk. 
frontals, frontoparietals, and interparietal distinct. 
in the middle line of the palate; pterygoids toothed. 


spheroidal. 


Evmeces scuyerpert, Daud. (Plate XXV.) 


Lacerta rufescens, part., Shaw, Gen. Zool. iii. 1802, p. 285. 

Scincus schneideri, Daud. Hist. Rept. iv. 1802, p. 291; Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. Descr. de Egypte, 
Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 135, pl. ii. fig. 3. ™ 

Scincus cepedii, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 71. 

Scincus pavimentatus, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. Descr. de Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. 1827, p. 138, pl. iv. 
fig. 4. 

Scincus cyprius, Cuv. Reg. An. nouv. éd. ii. 1829, p. 62. 

Tiliqua cyprinus, Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. Kingd. ix. 1831, p. 68. 

Eumeces pavimentatus, Wiegm. Herp. Mex. 1834, p. 86; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1864, p. 48; 
Blanford, Hast. Persia, Zool. ii. 1876, p. 387; Boettger, Zeitschr. ges. Nat. (Giebel) 1877, 
p. 288; Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, p. 183; Kessler, Trans. St. Petersb. Soc. of Nat. viii. 
1878, Suppl. p. 177; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou, 1879, no. 3, p. 27; Tristram, West. 
Palestine, Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 152. 

Plestiodon aldrovandii, part., Dum. & Bibr. v. 1839, p. 701; ?Guichenot, Explor. Se. Alg., 
Se. Phys. Zool. 1850, p. 17; A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 164; De Filippi, 
Viagg. in Persia, 1865, p. 354; Steindachner, Unger & Kotschy’s Insel Cypern, 1865, p. 573; 
Gasco, Viagg. Egitto, pt. ii. 1876, p. 109; Lortet, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, iii. 1883, 
p- 187. 

Euprepis princeps, Bichw. Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou, ii. 1839, p.303; Faun. Casp.-Cauc. 1841, p. 93, 
pl. xvi. figs. 1-3. 

Plestiodon auratus, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 91; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 489. 

Mabouia aurata, Gthr. Rept. Brit. Ind. 1864, p. 82. 

Eumeces pavimentatus, var. syriaca, Boettger, Abh. Senck. Ges. xiii. 1883, p. 120. 

Eumeces schneideri, Blgr, Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 883; Trans. Linn. Soc., Zool. y. 1889, p. 101 ; 


Pl. XXV. 


Reptiles of Egypt 


SCHNEIDERI. 


EUMECES 


&, Maryut district. 


EUMECES SCHNEIDERI. U7 


Fauna of Brit. India, Rept. & Batr. 1890, p. 219; Trans. Zool. Soc. xin. 1891, p. 136 ; 
Boettger, Zool. Jahrb. iii. 1888, p. 918; Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 111; Anderson, 
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 16; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 104; Olivier, Mém. Soe. Zool. 
France, vii. 1894, p. 114; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 9. 

Plestiodon pavimentatus, Lortet, Archiv. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, i. 1888, p. 187. 

19. Marsa Matru, about 150 miles to west of Alexandria. 

3g and8 9. Maryut District. 

Snout broadly pointed, short; its length equals the distance between the eye and the 
base of the ear-lobules; nasal generally divided, occasionally single, resting chiefly on 
the first labial, with its posterior lower angle on the second labial; no postnasal ; 
supranasals broadly in contact behind the rostral; frontonasal occasionally divided, 
forming a broad suture with the second loreal; frontal as long as, or longer than, the 
interspace between itself and the front of the rostral; five supraoculars, rarely six, the 
first three in contact with the frontal; five to seven superciliaries; the interparietal 
completely separates the parietals ; four or five pairs of nuchals; eight upper labials, 
occasionally nine, the sixth generally below the eye, rarely the seventh. ‘wo azygos 
postmentals. ar large, with 3 or 4 prominent triangular lobules at its front margin. 
22 to 28 (26 to 28 in Egypt) rows of perfectly smooth scales round the body, the scales 
of the two median dorsal series being each as broad as two of the lateral scales. ‘The 
length of the fore limb is generally less than the distance between its humero-pectoral 
angle and the nostril, but it occasionally equals that distance; when laid forwards 
it usually reaches between the eye and the nostril, but occasionally only extends 
to the middle of the eye. The hind limb is much shorter than the interspace between 
the fore and hind limbs, and equals only about two-thirds of its extent, or even falls 


short of that. The tail may be considerably more than once and a half as long as the 


body and head. 
The general colour of the upper surface is greenish olive with a brownish tinge, 


clearly defined off on the sides from the yellowish white of the underparts. The labials 
(month of April) are brilliant orange, with generally an olive-green spot on each, and 
this orange tint is prolonged backwards as a band through the lower half of the ear 
and along the sides of the neck and shoulders, and along the sides of the body. ‘he 
sides of the neck below the orange, and the yellowish white of the sides of the body 
and of the tail are more or less spotted, or shortly feebly barred, with greenish olive or 
dusky olive, and, in adolescents, there are a few black spots on the sides and continued 
on to the tail. The entire upper surface, with the exception of the head, is spotted 
with brilliant reddish orange, the spots being arranged more or less in irregular longi- 
tudinal series or more or less irregularly transversely, especially on the neck and tail, 
where they sometimes form distinct transverse bands. Limbs pale olive-brown suffused 
with orange. Entire under surface yellowish white. 


198 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


The largest male and female in my collection measure respectively from snout to 
vent 159 and 165 millim., but their tails are imperfect. A nearly adult male and 
female have the following dimensions :— 


¢. Snout to vent 155 mm., tail 224 mm. 
2 0 2) > 163 ” 2) 254 bP) 


I have met with this species—one of the most handsome of African lizards—in the 
semi-desert land to the west of Lake Mareotis, not far from the ruins of the country 
palace of Said Pasha, and known as the Maryut District. I first observed it among 
some heaps of stones on a slope of rising ground beside a field of stunted barley. It 
disappeared quickly among the stones, but with the aid of a pickaxe it was dug out, at 
no great depth, from a hole that had been tenanted by a snake that had recently cast 
its skin. All the specimens I obtained, about 12 in number, were captured within a 
radius of a few hundred yards from the foregoing spot, some of them in the loose sandy 
soil of the barley-fields. 

Ihave opened the stomachs of three specimens. In one I found the remains of a 
large scorpion, and in the others the hard remains of beetles. 

As far as I have been able to ascertain, it occurs only in the northern portion of the 
delta, and in the section of it immediately to the west of Alexandria. It is quite 
possible, however, that it may be found in other parts, on the outskirts of the delta, 
presenting similar conditions to those at Maryut. 

One of my specimens came from Marsa Matru, 150 miles to the west of Alexandria, 
and, some years ago, a collector I sent from Tunis to Duirat, on the confines of the 
western frontier of Tripoli, brought back three specimens from that region. It has also 
been recorded by A. Duméril from the south-eastern portion of Algeria. From Egypt 
it ranges through Palestine, Syria, Turkish Armenia, to the Trans-Caspian (Kopet- 
dagh), Persia, and Baluchistan. 

In Lower Egypt, it varies but little, but the lobulation of the ear becomes more or 
less modified in some. In Syrian specimens the body is much thinner in some than in 
others, and these correspond to the lizard described by Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire as S. pavi- 
mentatus, figured, pl. iv. fig. 4, in the ‘Descr. de Egypte, and therefore presumably from 
Egypt. Ihave never met with lizards of this somewhat attenuated type, and I am not 
aware that they have ever been found in Egypt since the publication of the great French 
work. In Syria, however, such forms do occur, and if they are present in Egypt they 
should be sought for on the eastern side of the delta, towards Tel el Kebir. Professor 
Boettger has described these Syrian forms and their colour-variations, which he is 
disposed to attribute to changes that take place in the lizards between the young 
and adult conditions. As all my specimens of what may be regarded as the typical 
form are adult, they throw no light on this subject. 

In some of the Syrian examples of this species, aremarkable simulation, so to speak, 


EUMECES SCHNEIDERI. 199 


is met with of the coloration so characteristic of Chalcides ocellatus. So much does 
it conform to the latter that individuals presenting it might at first sight be mistaken 
for that species. 

Six out of 8 Egyptian specimens have 26 rows of scales round the middle of the 
body, and two have 28. These two numbers prevail in Persian examples of the species, 
whereas in the Syrian forms only 24 rows of scales occur. 

Tt is known to the Arabs as WUS *)=wmin el hatydt, “the mother of serpents,” and 
also as pal LS =raddd@at el bakar, the “ milker of cattle ;”’ but, according to Sonnini, 


a similar myth to this exists regarding Varanus niloticus. 


200 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


SCINCOPUS. 
Scincopus, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1864, p. 45. 


Limbs well developed, but rather short ; digits 5—5, subcylindrical, slightly laterally 
compressed, with transverse lamelle below, not serrated laterally. Tail short, conical. 
Nostril lateral, between an anterior and posterior nasal ; eyelids well developed, scaly ; 
ear-orifice covered by two large scutes in the form of opercula ; postnasals, supranasals, 
prefrontals, frontoparietals, and interparietals present. Dorsal scales large, grooved, 
finely striated, enlarged in the middle line of the back. Palatine bones not in contact 
in the middle line of the palate; pterygoids toothed ; lateral teeth conical. 


I have examined the type of this genus and species preserved in the Berlin Museum. 
It was presented by Strauch, and in addition to the name Scincopus fasciatus, Peters, 
it bears the name Otolepis brandtii, Strauch. ‘Lhe locality whence it was obtained 
was Geryville, on the confines of the Algerian Sahara. I have also been privileged 
to see the specimen in the Paris Museum from Tunisia. 

The lizard preserved in the Berlin Museum, to which Peters gave the name 
Scincopus fasciatus, agrees in all its essential characters with the Suakin specimens, 
and, like some of them, it has 24 rows of scales round the body. ‘The Paris individual, 
on the other hand, presents some differences which are due, however, not to any 
specific diversity between it and the Suakin lizards, but to abnormal division of some 
of the head-shields. ‘Thus there is an azygos prefrontal separating the prefrontals 
proper, and there are three loreals instead of two, the third loreal being produced by 
longitudinal division of the anterior loreal, so that two loreals instead of one lie behind 
the nostril. ‘The second, third, and fourth supraoculars are in contact with the frontal, 
and on one side the first as well. 

The form of the head of this lizard resembles that of the members of the genus 
Eumeces and not that of Scincws. The moderately pointed snout arches gently 
upwards to the vertex and is quite distinct from the flattened digging snout of the 
latter genus. Its digits, moreover, are structurally different from those of Scineus, in 
which both the fingers and toes are much flattened from above downwards, so that 
their cross-section is an elongated oval, transverse in position, while the digits of 
Scincopus are slightly laterally compressed, and thus in transverse section present a 
vertical oval. In Seincus, the digits are covered below by a series of transverse 
lamelle acutely bent round their inner edges, so that the lamellae appear more or 
less on the upper surface of the digits; and their dorsal aspects are clad with a 
series of transverse scales, the external edges of which form a lateral fringe 
more developed in the pes than in the manus}. In Scincopus, on the other 


* See p. 204 for a description of the digits of Scincus. 


Pl. XXVI. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


SCINCOPUS FASCIATUS. 


¢, Suakin. 


SCINCOPUS FASCIATUS. 201 


hand, the digits are covered with four rows of scales, a dorsal, a ventral, and a 
lateral for each side, with no trace of denticulation or fringing, the digits being 
essentially like those of Humeces. It is thus evident that in its feet, as in its general 
form and non-angulated body, the nearest ally of this genus is Hwmeces. ‘The detail 
in which it shows an affinity with Scéncus is in the form of the labials, for, as in 
that genus, the upper labials are first slightly directed outwards and then inwards, 
while the lower labials manifest an intensification of the ridge that occurs in Scincus. 
In all the forms referable to Scincus the body has a ridge running along the sides, 
and the scales are perfectly smooth and almost glassy in their polished surfaces, 
whereas, in Scincopus, the sides of the body are round and the scales are grooved and 
show fine, irregular ridges. 


ScINCOPUS FASCcIATUS, Peters. (Plate X XVI.) 
Seincus officinalis, part., Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 41. 
Scincus (Scincopus) fasciatus, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1864, p. 45. 
Cyclodus brandtii, Strauch, Bull. Ac. St. Pétersb. x. 1866, p. 459. 
Scincus fasciatus, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 390; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 137. 
Scincopus fasciatus, Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 104. 
1 2. Suakin. Colonel Sir Charles Holled Smith, C.B., K.C.M.G. 


3.6, 49,and1juv. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
2 6. Suakin. 


Head shortly pyramidal, swollen in the temporal region, but longer than broad; 
snout obtusely truncate; loreal region concave ; lower labials with a ridge along their 
middle, the intervening space between the ridge and the lower border of the upper 
labials concave. Ear-opening large, near the commissure of the mouth, covered by 
two large opercula. Rostral considerably broader than high, convex from above 
downwards, and from side to side, and without a trenchant margin; supranasals 
broadly in contact with the rostral; frontonasal rather small, hexagonal, broader 
behind than in front, its anterior breadth less than, and its posterior breadth greater 
than its length; frontal slightly longer than the conjoint prefrontals, frontonasal, and 
supranasals, its lateral margins slightly concave and its posterior equalling two-thirds 
of its anterior breadth; six supraoculars, the second and third in contact with the 
frontal; four or five superciliaries; interparietal somewhat longer than the fronto- 
parietals and generally separating the parietals posteriorly, rarely merged in the 
surrounding shields; generally four pairs of nuchals, sometimes amalgamated with the 
parietals. Two or three loreals, the first higher than long, in contact with the frento- 
nasal, supranasal, posterior nasal, second and third labials, second loreal, and 
prefrontal ; the second considerably longer than high, in contact with the prefrontal, 

2D 


202 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


second loreal, third and fourth labials, anterior subocular, and first supraocular ; six or 
seven very low infraorbitals ; one postorbital; temporals 1+2. Generally eight upper 
labials, rarely 9 or 10; lower labials usually 8, rarely 7 ; the sixth upper labial usually 
below the middle of the eye, rarely the fifth or seventh; two azygos postmentals, with 
a pair of large shields behind them followed by 3 or 4 large shields, one behind the 
other, separated from those of the opposite side by a longitudinal line of smaller 
shields. Body surrounded by 22-26 rows of scales, those on the middle of the 
back nearly thrice as large as the largest ventral scales; each scale on the upper 
surface of the body with either two or three grooves running along it longi- 
tudinally, with the rest of its surface covered more or less with fine irregular raised 
lines and depressions; these markings are all but obliterated on the scales on the 
side, and nearly disappear on the under surface, but they are generally present more 
or less on the throat in adults. ‘Two large anal shields, larger than the parietals. 
Limbs well developed, but short; the fore limb, when laid forward, may reach the 
middle of the eye or may extend beyond the eye; digits moderately short; upper 
surface of the manus covered at the base of the digits with five longitudinal rows of 
scales, one to each digit, the row corresponding to the fourth finger being the broadest ; 
but in the pes there are 8 such rows, an additional row being interpolated between 
each digit from the first to the fourth; ungual scute moderately large ; claws 
compressed, curved. ‘Tail short, broad at the base, depressed, afterwards slightly 
laterally compressed, rounded above and below. 

Colour of the upper surface of the animal pale orange-yellow or greyish yellow; the 
head from the snout to the vertex, and along its sides to the ear inclusive, generally 
deep bluish black, but the lower half of the rostral and most of the anterior upper 
labials yellowish white; six or seven broad transverse bands of the same colour across 
the back, the first on the neck (sometimes absent), the second behind the shoulder, the 
third on the middle of the body, the fourth on the loins, and three on the tail, the 
terminal one generally the broadest ; these black dorsal bars are sometimes almost 
wanting, being only represented by a few black blotches or faint blackish margins to 
the scales in the regions generally occupied by them, but the black tip to the tail is 
always indicated ; sides and underparts yellowish white or nearly white. 

The following table shows that there is very little variation in the number of labials. 
Professor Peters recorded 9 and 10 upper labials in his specimen, but he probably 
regarded as a labial the scale that intervenes between the lower scale of the operculum 
of the ear and the very large scale that I regard as the last labial. The tabulated 
measurements reveal some trifling variations in the sizes of the parts recorded. ‘The 
type from Geryville had 24 rows of scales round the body, and the one in Paris 
from Tunisia had 26, the highest recorded number. 

I kept an example of this lizard under observation for three weeks, but during 
that time it refused to eat, although it was offered a great variety of insects and 


SCINCOPUS FASCIATUS. 2038 


Measurements &e. of some Examples of S. fasciatus, Peters (in millim.). 


Snout Length | Width Upper Let ial Long | Length of | Axilla | Length of | Scales 
Sex. to Tail. of of and lower erat axis of | fore limb to hind limb | round | Locality, 
vent. head. | head. labials. ana eye. |posteriorly.| groin. |posteriorly.| body. 
j 8 
EO) | GS | 2B | wy sea Sl SG 5 28 42 | 31:5 | 22 | Suakin. 
8 
One 92 a | 176! = 5| 6 5 "8 | 25 | aia | oe |. 
8 
Geos 12D | 62 | BB | Bal | lone) 6 | ees | ar | ae | |, 
8 
Bocae| 122 | eo | BO PS | Sl Bee a | sas et | 
8 é 
@ooce] 2B | or | @ | Bal = sl 6 16 | @ lal ses | sa], 
8 
Sooco[ 188 | 4 | eB | oes STS 6 40 “| 43 29 a 
8 8 
18) || 7 | ee | oy | = Sal G 65 | 42 71 | 445 | 99 % 
9 9 
Goons LE | GD | Ge ae) ay 65 | 42 71 | 425 | 94 a 
8 8 
Q..../ 144 | 85 | 35 | 26 z 7 8 7 43 75 | 45:5 | 922 . 
9 8 
Gece 4S | GS | Sr | 28 | es sl iG) y 44 81 | 485 | 24 3 
igy | 63 | 8 | 93 | = =) @ 7 415 | 77 | 45 op ll. 


small pieces of animal food. The stomach is provided with stronger muscular walls 
than is generally met with in insectivorous lizards; and associated with this we find 
that this species is in the habit of swallowing sand, and even small pebbles and other 
hard substances with its food, which largely consists of beetles. I removed, from the 
stomach of one, a pebble 15 millim. long by 2 millim. broad, and also the hard branched 
stem of a plant 22 millim. long and 13 in expanse. 

I much regret that I did not carefully examine the nature of the lizard’s pupil in 
life, as when I came to look at it in alcoholic specimens it appeared to be more or less 
vertical, thus implying a nocturnal habit. 


Until the foregoing specimens were obtained at Suakin, only four examples of the 
species existed in the Museums of Europe. Besides the type, described by Peters and 
preserved in the Berlin Museum, another, in the Paris Museum, was picked up dead, 
but in a dried condition, by M. Lataste, on a plain to the south of Gabes, in Tunisia ; 
a third was captured at Khartum, while the fourth, the locality of which is unknown, 
exists in the Museum of St. Petersburg. The species has thus a wide range over 
Northern Africa. 

It is known to the Hadendowahs as the Gull-gull. 


2p 2 


204 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


SCINCUS. 
Scincus, part., Laur. Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 55. 


Sides of the body more or less angular ; limbs well developed; digits 5—5, flattened 
from above downwards, with transverse lamelle below ; a strong lateral fringe formed 
by the scales of the upper surface of the digits; tail thick at its base, conical; snout 
cuneiform, with a sharp labial edge; nostril between an upper and lower nasal; lower 
eyelid scaly ; ear-opening more or less covered by two or more small fringed scales, or 
entirely hidden by the scales; supranasals, prefrontals, frontoparietals, and inter- 
parietal present ; dorsal scales smooth or striated. Palatine bones not in contact in 
the middle line of the palate; pterygoids toothed; lateral teeth conical. 


The following arrangement of scales prevails on the digits of S. officinalis, Laur. :— 
On the fore foot the first and second digits have a series of inferior lamelle, a superior 
longitudinal series, and a series of very small scales along the external border. In all 
the other digits of the manus only the superior series of scales and the lamellar scales 
of the under surface are present. The inferior lamelle on the first four digits of the 
manus are acutely bent upwards and appear on the dorsal surface of the internal 
border, but on the fifth this arrangement is reversed, as the inferior lamelle appear on 
the upper surface of the external border. In the first to the fourth digit the fringe is 
formed by the projecting anterior angle of the external free margin of the dorsal plate, 
while in the fifth digit it is formed by the inner border of the dorsal plates and is thus 
internal, but in this finger the external angles of the inferior plates form a distinct 
denticulated border. ‘The two large plates over the claws of the fifth finger have their 
position the exact reverse of the other fingers. In all the digits of the pes the fringe 
is external, and their inner margins are also all more or less denticulated, very feebly 
in the first, more strongly in the second, and most so in the fifth. This structure of 
the digits is thus very different from the simple digit of Scincopus and Humeces. 

It seems impossible to distinguish the sexes of this species by the characters of 
the base of the tail, as can be done generally among other lizards, in which the base 
of the tail is swollen in the male and not in the female. A female before me has the 
base of the tail absolutely more swollen than it isin a larger male. Both of these 
specimens were sexed by inspection of the internal generative organs. ‘The female, 
however, as in the great majority of lizards, is distinguished by a more graceful form 
than the male, and by a smaller and more delicately formed head. Both males and 
females alike have an enlarged ridge-like scale on the posterior border of the cloacal 
opening. 


“Yyoziy ‘uasaq Apurg “anf 2 P 
SITVNIOI4AO SNONIOS 


© 


os ee 
“ITAXX ‘Id ydk3y jo sopndoy 


se, a 


SCINCUS OFFICINALIS. 205 


Scrncus OFFICINALIS, Laur. (Plate XX VIL.) 


Ei Adda, Bruce, Travels to Discover Sources of Nile, 1790, App. pp. 193-198, pl. 2. fig. 2. 

Lacerta scincus, Hasselq. Act. Soc. Reg. Sc. Upsal. 1751, pp. 30-33. 

Lacerta stincus, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, p.3809; Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 1766, p. 865. 

Scincus officinalis, Laurenti, Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 55; Schneider, Hist. Amph. ii. 1801, p. 174; 
part., Dandin, Hist. Rept. iv. 1802, p. 228; Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 73; Fitz. Nene 
Class. Rept. 1826, p. 52; Aud. Descr, de l’Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. 21829, p. 178, Suppl. pl. 2. 
figs. 8.1 to 8.3; Cuvier, Rég. An. nouv. éd. ii. 1829, p.62; Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. King. ix. 
1831, p. 67 ; Brandt u. Ratzeburg, Med. Zool. 1827-34, p. 166; Wiegm. Arch. f. Nat. 1837, 
p. 127; Dum. & Bibr. v. 1839, p. 564; Duvernoy, Cuv. Rég. An., Rept. pl. xxii. fig. 1; 
Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 74; Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 804; Gervais, Ann. Se. 
Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 204; Gravenh. Nov. Acta Ac. Leop.-Carol. xxiii. 1, 1851, p. 318, pl. xxxi. ; 
Tristram, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 475; part., Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. 
no. 7, 1862, p. 41; Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, p. 183; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 
1880, p. 308; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. ii. 1887, p. 891; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 137; 
Pfeffer, Jahrb. Hamb. Wissensch. Aust. vi. 1889, p. 8; op. cit. x. 1893, p.7; Anderson, Proc. 
Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 16; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p.105; Kénig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. 
Bonn, 1892, p. 21; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 114; Werner, Verh. zool.- 
bot. Ges. Wien, 1895, xliv. p. 83; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom. Stud. Zool. v. fase. i. & ii. 
1896, p. 44. 

Lacerta edda, Donndorff, Zool. Beytr. 1798, p. 134. 


13,5 ?,and 3 juv. Sandy desert, Pyramids of Gizeh. 
6. Sandy desert, Pyramids of Gizeh. 


Snout rather long and wedge-shaped; eye small; ear a short way behind the angle 
of the mouth, small and protected by two or three scales with fringed margins; nostril 
placed on the canthus rostralis, which is rounded off into the concave loreal region; a 
postnasal ; seven upper labials; rostral large and in contact by a fine point with the 
frontonasal, which is hexagonal; frontal slightly contracted antero-posteriorly and in 
contact with the second and third supraoculars, of which there are six; parietals small, 
shorter than the interparietal, with four or five nuchals behind them. Twenty-six to 
twenty-eight scales, rarely thirty, round the body, perfectly smooth, those on the middle 
of the back slightly larger than the largest scales on the under surface. Limbs short 
and stout; the digits strongly fringed; ungual phalanges with large scutes; claws 
rather narrow and long. ‘Tail considerably shorter than the body and head, thick and 
cylindrical at its base, but more cr less laterally compressed towards its tip. 

General colour pale but rich yellowish, with usually ten brown or pale yellowish- 
brown broad cross-bars from the occiput to the sacral region, with a varying number 
continued on to the tail. Each dorsal scale with two or three short, white, longitudinal 
streaks or shafts. Under surface yellowish white. In the young there are seemingly 


206 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


no brown bars across the back, but only short dusky areas corresponding to their 
position occur along the sides; each scale is finely margined with brownish, but no 
white streaks are present. 

Measurements of the largest male from Gizeh:—Snout to vent 112 millim., tail 
67 millim. 

It attains, however, to a considerably greater size, one example in the British 
Museum measures as follows :—Snout to vent 147 millim., tail 77 millim. 

This well-known lizard is not at all uncommon in the desert about the Pyramids of 
Gizeh, but it occurs only in the accumulations of drift-sand. I have on a number of 
occasions let individuals loose to watch their movements and without any fear of losing 
them, as when once the lizard is covered with the sand its movements are neither so 
quick nor does it go so deep that it cannot. be recaptured with ease, if it is carefully 
watched. When let loose it runs a few paces and then begins to hide itself by first 
thrusting its sharp wedge-shaped snout into the sand with its hind lhmbs laid back- 
wards against the tail; and when the body is wriggled under up to the hind limbs, it 
uses these members and a spiral movement of the tail to complete its disappearance. 
The method by which it propels itself into the loose sand and the ease with which it 
is accomplished forcibly remind one of an act of swimming, and hence it has well 
earned the name “fish of the sand.” It has been described in a nnmber of old works 
devoted to fish. 

Lefebvre collected a number of individuals of this scink during an excursion he 
made into the oasis of Baharieh, in 1828. He found them on hillocks of fine light 
sand accumulated by the south wind at the base of the hedges and tamarisks that 
border the cultivated land, on the confines of the desert. In such situations, he 
observed the scink sunning itself, but running from time to time after insects 
(Coleoptera) that might pass within its reach. He says that in a few instants it 
would penetrate the sand to the depth of many feet, and that it made no attempt to 
bite or scratch with its claws when captured, although it made efforts to escape. 

The Bedouins recognize its trail on the sands and dig it out very dexterously with 
their hands, and any I have seen captured were never more than a few inches, twelve 
at the most, below the surface. 

It has been recorded from the Algerian Sahara close to the frontier of Morocco, and 
as Rohlfs and Stecker obtained it on their way to the oasis of Kufra, to the south of 
‘Tripoli, and Bruce in the Atbara valley, it may be said to be distributed over the 
Sahara. It may possibly extend with the sand-drifts to the east of the Isthmus of 
Suez, but that it occurs in Syria proper seems very improbable, considering its habits. 
It has not yet been observed in Arabia, in which five out of the seven members of the 
genus occur. ‘The remaining species, S. arenarius, which is the most closely allied of 
all to 8. officinalis, is found in Sind, whereas S. hemprichii inhabits the opposite coast 
of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. 


SCINCUS OFFICINALIS. 207 


The members of the French Expedition did not meet with this species in Lower 
Egypt. No notice of it occurs in M. Is. Geoffror’s part of the work, and, in Audouin’s 
section, only Daudin’s description of it is quoted. Moreover, M. Is. Geoffroy himself, 
in a note to De Sacy’s translation of Abd-Allatif’s work, states that it is not found in 
Lower Egypt, and that it is rare in Upper Egypt. My experience has been quite the 
reverse. He adds, moreover, that it was brought to Cairo by the caravans from 
Abyssinia; but the scink they carried was in all likelihood S. hemprichii and not 
S. officinalis, which does not occur in Ayssinia proper, whereas the former does. The 
similarity of the Arabian scinks to the true officinal scink of Egypt doubtless led the 
latter to be erroneously regarded as an inhabitant of that part of Asia. 

Bruce figures Scincus officinalis and states that it is a native of Atbara ‘“ beyond 
the rains,” and that it seemed well known to the different black inhabitants who came 
from the westwards by the great caravan which, in his day, was called the caravan 
of the Sudan. The term e/ adda given by Bruce to this lizard I have never heard 
used in Egypt. On showing it to some Bedouins in my employment they called 
it sakankur, the name applied by some old Arab writers to their scink, which was 
one or other of the two Varani found in Lower Egypt, and I observe that Sir J. 
Gardner Wilkinson (unpublished drawings) also gives sakankoor as the Arab name 
of Scincus officinalis. De Sacy conjectures that the term (be = idha or adhayeh, 
the el adda of Bruce, was properly applicable to Chalcides ocellatus, Forskal, and he 
mentions that Damiri, quoted by Bochart, states positively that lizards so called bore 
in Egypt the name ial = sihliya, the native term correctly applied to it by Forskal. 
As already mentioned, Prospero Alpini pointed out that the scink of his day (1553— 
1617) was not the lizard known to the ancients as Scincus. Avicenna (980-1037) 
says that the saguangur is a lizard found in the Nile, a statement repeated by Abd- 
Allatif and by some Arab authors. tn 

Avicenna gives two or more receipts for the preparation of an electuary of Scincus, 
which in Southeimer’s translation is identified with Scincus officinalis. Preparations 
of the latter lizard are still in use in Africa and Asia, and, not many years ago, I saw 
some dried specimens of a Scincus that had been imported into India. The only 
treatment to which they had been subjected was evisceration and drying, doubtless in 
the sun. ‘This lizard once held a place in the British Pharmacopeeia on account of 
its supposed alexipharmic properties, and it entered into the compound preparations 
known as “ Theriaca Andromache” and “ Confectio Damocratis.” Pliny extolled its 
virtues as a specific for the wounds caused by poisoned arrows. Among the Arabs it 
was in high repute as a remedy for reanimating the powers exhausted by age or by 
debauchery, and in eastern countries fables are still extant regarding its potency in 
this respect. 


208 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


CHALCIDES. 
Chalcides, part., Laur. Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 64. 


Body much elongate, rounded or angular. Limbs short or rudimentary ; digits 5—5 
to 1—1; nostrils formed by an emargination of the rostral and by a small nasal ; 
supranasals present. Eye well developed or small; lower eyelid with an undivided 
transparent disk. Ear open, nearly hidden by the scales or fringed. Preefrontals and 
frontoparietals absent. Palatine bones separated on the mesial line of the palate. 
Palate toothless. Teeth conical. 


Mr. Boulenger has grouped under the genus Chalcides a number of species of 
lizards evidently generically identical, but still manifesting among themselves certain 
modifications in the form of the head, length and character of the body, degree of 
development of the ear, eye, and limbs, that are full of interest. 

In their habits of life they belong to two sections, one living among and under 
stones and amid herbage, and the other burrowing amid loose sand. ‘The first of these 
sections contains the following species, viz.: C. ocellatus, C. viridanus, C. bedriage, 
C. lineatus, C. tridactylus, C. guentheri, C. mionecton, and C. mauritanicus ; and the 
second C. sphenopsiformis, C. delislit, C. sepoides, and C. boulengert. 

There can be no doubt of the intimate relation subsisting between C. ocellatus, 
C. viridanus, and C. bedriage, as they have all similarly formed heads, large ear-orifices, 
moderately elongate rounded bodies, and almost equally developed pentadactyle limbs. 
The three species, C. lineatus, C. tridactylus, and C. guentheri, on the other hand, while 
they have similarly formed heads and large ear-openings like the previous group, have 
much more elongate and serpentine bodies, but still round, whilst they usually possess 
more feeble tridactyle limbs, reduced in the most specialized form, C. guentheri, to 
seemingly functionless knobs. 

From the structural features of these lizards, it is evident that they are in no sense 
burrowers. ‘Their conical snouts, widely open ears, and relatively weak limbs are not 
suited to such a habit. 

In the third group, the members of which live in loose sand and whose bodies 
are specially adapted for such a life—viz.: C. sphenopsiformis, C. delislit, C. sepoides, 
and (. boulengeri—the head is modified, as the canthus rostralis disappears, the 
snout becomes wedge-shaped and projects beyond the labial margin as a sharp 
edge, and is thus well adapted for being driven into the loose sand, like the snout 
of Scincus. The eye becomes reduced in size, and also the ear, which is either 
almost hidden by the neck-scales or protected by a fringe of scales. The outline 
of the body also is modified, as it is angular at the sides. ‘The limbs in all are weak, 
but more especially the fore limb. In one the fore limb is didactyle (Anisoterma, 
A. Dum.), in another tridactyle (Allodactylus, Lataste), and in other two tetra- or 


CHALCIDES. 209 


pentadactyle (Sphenops, Wagler); the hind limb in all is generally tetradactyle, and in 
one species occasionally pentadactyle. ; 

The two species grouped along with C. ocellatus conform, more or less, to its type 
of coloration; whereas in the second group lineation of the body is the characteristic 
feature, a type of coloration which is also present in the third, but associated with a 
pale body colour, in keeping with the sand in which the lizards live. 

The lizard described by Professor Boettger from West Africa under the name of 
Seps (Gongyloseps) mionecton, manifests a perceptible tendency, in the more rounded 
character of the canthus rostralis and in the greater flattening of the symphysis 
of the lower jaw, to lead into the third group. The ear also is open, but smaller 
than in C. bedriage, to which it is closely allied, and from which it differs in having 
more degraded limbs and in some other characters. Its body is more elongate than 
in C@. viridanus, and slightly more so than in C. bedriage. Its colour is almost exactly 
similar to that of the latter, and retains like it the undoubted equivalents of the 
ocellation of C. ocellatus, but restricted chiefly to the brown area occupying the 
middle of the back and to the tail. C. mionecton leads not only to the third group, 
but also somewhat towards C. tridactylus. The great gaps, however, that exist between 
the species may eventually be more or less filled up by intermediate forms, when the 
region of Africa to the south and east of Morocco becomes known. ‘The condition of 
the ear of C. mionecton is of considerable interest, as the upper scales of the orifice tend 
to form a fringe over it, but it isno more than the beginning of a divergence from the 
type of ear characteristic of the first and second groups towards that distinctive of 
the third group, and most accentuated in the fringed ear of C. sepoides. In C. delislit 
and C. sphenopsiformis the ear is more hidden, as the scales all but wholly cover it, 
but they are not modified into a fringe as in C. sepotdes and C. boulengert. 

The form C. mauritanicus, Dum. & Bibr., is closely allied to C. mionecton, as the 
body is round and has about the same degree of elongation, and much the same colour. 
The head has the form of the head of C. viridanus, but the limbs are even more 
degraded than in C. mionecton, and there are only two digits anteriorly and three on 
the hindlimb. ‘The ear is almost entirely covered by the scales. There are only 10 rows 
of scales round the body, which is the smallest known number in this genus of scinks. 
It is doubtless an offshoot from C. mionecton, like the other small sand-lizards, such as 
C. boulengeri and C. sepoides on the one hand, and C. delislit and C. sphenopsiformis on 
the other; whereas the large-eared scinks of this genus, viz. C. lineatus, C. tridactylus', 
and C. guentheri, are in all likelihood offshoots from an ancestor allied to C. bedriage, 
and from which C. viridanus and C. ocellatus also probably sprang. 


? CHALCIDES TRIDACTYLUS, Laur. 
Chalcides tridactyla, Laur. Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 64. 
Chaleides tridactytus, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. ii. 1887, p. 403. 
A scink has been recorded from the neighbourhood of Alexandria by Prof. Gasco* under this name. In 
* Viage. in Egitto, pt. i. 1876, p. 109. 
25 


210 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


CHALCIDES OCELLATUS, Forskal. (Plate XXVIII. fig. 1.) 


Lacerta ocellata, Forskal, Descr. An. &c. 1775, p. viii et p. 13; Aud. Descr. de VEgypte, Hist. 
Nat. i. ? 1829, p. 73, Suppl. pl. 1. figs. 71-73. 

Lacerta (Stincus) ocellata, Donndorff, Zool. Beytr. 11. 1798, p. 126. 

Lacerta tiligugu, Gm. Syst. Nat. Linn. 1. pt. i. 1788, p. 1078. 

? Scincus ocellatus, Schneider, Hist. Amph. 11. 1801, p. 203. 

Scincus variegatus, id. 1. c. p. 185. 

Scincus ocellatus, Meyer, Syn. Rept. 1795, p. 30; Daud. Rept. iv. 1802, p. 308, pl. lvi.?; Merr. Syst. 
Amph. 1820, p. 74; Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. Descr. de VEgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 189, pl. v. 
fig. 1; Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 2, vi. 1836, p. 309. 

? Scincus mabouya, Daud. Rept. iv. 1802, p. 246; Oppell, Ord. Fam. Gatt. Rept. 1811, p. 39. 

Scincus tiligugu, Latr. Hist. Nat. Rept. ii. p. 72; Daud. Rept. iv. 1802, p. 251; Merr. Syst. Amph. 
1820, p. 73. 

Stincus ocellatus, Oliv. Voy. Emp. Othom. &c. ii. livr. 1, 1801, p. vi, pl. 16. fig. 1. 

Scincus tirus, Rafin. Caratt. ale. n. Gen. Anim. 1810, p. 9. 

Scincus thyro, Metaxa, Mem. Zool. Roman, 1821, art. 1, spec. 16, fig. 

Mabuya ocellata, Fitz. N. Class. Rept. 1826, p. 53. 

Tiliqua ocellata, Cuv. Rég. An. nouy. éd. 1829, il. p. 63. 

Gongylus ocellatus, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 162; Bonap. Faun. Ital. 1832-41, p. et pl. 
without no.; D. & B. iv. 1839, p. 616; Gené, Mem. Accad. Torino, ser. 2, 1. 1839, p. 268; 
part., Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 123; Lefebvre, Voy. Abyss. vi., Zool. 1845-50, p. 206 ; 
Guichenot, Explor. Se. Algér., Sc. Phys., Zool. v. 1850, p. 17; Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 
1851, p. 155; Gravenh. N. Acta Ac. Leop.-Carol. xxiii. 1851, i. p. 343; Peters, Mon. Berl. 
Ak. 1862, p. 272; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 48; Ginther, 


one of Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson’s books of drawings, professedly of Egyptian objects *, there is a figure 
of C. tridactylus under the name of e bergil, but with no information as to the locality whence it was 
obtained. The drawing is simply marked Seps. 

The late Dr. Grant, of Cairo, informed me that while digging among some ruins in the Fayum, many years 
ago, he unearthed a long snake-like lizard, which, from the conditions under which it was found and the 
description he gave of it, might possibly be this species. The specimen was sent by Dr. Grant to Professor 
Owen for identification, but he had no reply to his enquires regarding it. 

I have mentioned elsewheret that a specimen of this species exists in the Cairo Museum, but unfortunately 
unaccompanied by any information as to its origin. 

The evidence as to its existence in Lower Egypt is thus not sufficiently conclusive to entitle it to more 
than this passing reference. 


Its conical snout, long rounded body, and weak tridactyle limbs enable it to be easily recognized. 


* Tam indebted to Sir W. Flower for having shown me the volume. 
+ Herp. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 113. 


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CHALCIDES OCELLATUS. 211 


Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 489; Steindachner, Unger & Kotschy’s Insel Cypern, 1865, p. 573 ; 
Blanford, Geol. & Zool. Abyss. 1870, p. 456; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 377; De 
Betta, Fauna d’Ital., Rett. ed Anfibi, 1874, p. 31, pl. iv.; Schreiber, Herpet. Europ. 1875, 
p. 356; Gasco, Viaggio in Egitto, pt. 1. 1876, p. 109; Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. Erdk. Berl. 
xiii. 1878, p. 95; Miller, Amph. Basel, 1878, p. 631; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mose. liv. 1879, 
p- 26; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 308; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mose. lvi. 1882, p. 48; 
Vaillant, Révoil’s Faun. et Flor. Pays Comalis, Rept. & Batr. 1882, p. 24; Reichenow, 
Sitzungsb. Ges. naturf. Freunde Berl. 1883, p. 149; Murray, Zool. of Sind, 1884, p. 357; 
Tristram, West. Palestine, Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 152; Camerano, Mon. Saur. Ital. 1886, 
p- 65; Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. ed Anfibi Mar Rosso, 1886, p. 31; Hart, Faun. & Flor. Sinai, 
&e. 1891, p. 210; Olivier, Mém. Soe. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 115; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. 
Rom. Stud. Zool. v. fase. i. & ii. 1896, p. 45. 

Tiliqua ocellatus, Gray, Syn. Griffith’s An. King. ix. 1831, p. 68. 

Tiliqua microcephala, Gray, Ann. Nat. Hist. 11. 1838, p. 292. 

Euprepes (Gongylus) ocellatus, Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 304. 

Seps (Gongylus) ocellatus, Giinth. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 241 ; Boettger, Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. 
ix. 1873-75, p. 148, pl. fig. 4; Zeitschr. ges. Nat. (Giebel), 1877, p. 288; Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 
1878-79, p. 73; op. cit. 1879-80, p. 190; op. cit. 1882, p. 258; Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. xiii. 
1884, p. 121; Kobelt’s Reiseerin. Alg. u. Tunis, 1885, p. 471; Blanford, East. Persia, Zool. 
ii. 1876, p. 398. 

Seps ocellatus, Lortet, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, iii. 1883, p. 187. 

Chalcides ocellatus, Blgr. Ann. & Mag. N. H. (5) xx. 1887, p. 345; Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 400 ; 
Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) i. 1889, p. 304; Fauna of Brit. Ind., Rept. 1890, p. 224; Trans. 
Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 188; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, 1891, xii. (xxxii.) p. 12; op. cit. 
Xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 551; op. cit. xvi. (xxxvil.) 1897, p. 278; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 535 ; 
op. cit. 1896, p. 215; Pfeffer, Jahrb. Hamb. Wissench. Anst. vi. 1889, p. 8; op. cit. x. 1898, 
p- 7; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 16; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xli. 1893, 
p- 354; op. cit. xliv. 1895, p. 83; op. cit. xlv. 1896, p. 17; Boettger, Sitz.-Ber. Ak. Wissensch. 
Berl. 1888, p. 168; Ber. Offenb. Ver. xxix.—xxxii. 1892, p. 62; Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, 
p- 112; Zool. Anz. 1893, p. 116; Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlvi. 1896, p. 279; Matschie, 
Ges. nat. Fr. Berl. 1893, no. 1, p. 29; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 10. 

Chalcides ocellatus, var. vittatus, Blgr. Ann. Mag. N. H. ser. 6, v. 1890, p. 445; Trans. Zool. Soe. 
xiii. 1891, p. 189, pl. xvii. fig. 1. 

Chalcides ocellatus, var. polylepis, Blgr. Ann. Mag. N. H. ser. 6, v. 1890, p. 445; Trans. Zool. Soe. 
xill. 1891, p. 139, pl. xvii. fig. 2. 

Chalcides ocellatus, var. ragazzii, Blgr. Ann. Mag. N. H. ser. 6, v. 1890, p. 444. 

Chalcides ocellatus, forma typica, Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 139. 

Chalcides ocellatus, var. tiligugu, Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 189; Koénig, Verh. (S.B.) 
nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, p. 21. 

Chalcides ocellatus, var. humilis, Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 552. 

Chalcides (Gongylus) ocellatus, Miilier, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, viii. 1889, p. 702; Anderson, Proc. 
Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 651; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 49 & 105. 


2. Marsa Matru. 
2. Maryut District. 


bo 
e 
t 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Alexandria. 

Oasis of Siwah. A. R. Birdwood, Esq. 

Ramleh. 

Beltim. Dr. J. G. Rogers. 

Mahallet el Kebir, Delta. G.H. Kent, Esq. 
Cairo. Dr. Walter Innes. 

Gizeh. 

Fayum. 

Luxor. 

Oasis of Khargeh. Professor Ernest Sickenberger. 
Berys, south of Oasis of Khargeh. Major H, G. Lyons, R.E. 
Assuan. 

Phile. 

Wadi Halfa. 

Durrur. 

Suakin. 

Tokar. 


ONS MO OPP SAAN eS YPM & 


Snout obtuse, projecting very slightly, if at all, beyond the labial margin; eye 
moderately developed; ear-opening more or less triangular, moderately large, and 
placed some distance behind the commissure of the mouth. Nostril small, over the 
suture between the rostral and first labial; supranasals in contact behind the rostral, 
their length about one half of their breadth ; nasal small, crescentic, with a postnasal 
behind it in contact with the supranasal, first loreal, and first and second labial, rarely 
with the second only; frontonasal broader than long, in contact with supranasals, first 
loreal, first supraorbital and frontal; frontal nearly as broad as long; generally 8 upper 
labials, rarely 7 or 9, the fifth usually under the eye, the last the smallest. Sides of 
body rounded; 24-40 scales round the body (usually 26-32 in Egypt), smooth or 
feebly striated. Limbs short, but well developed ; digits 5—5. ‘The length of the fore 
limb is less, sometimes considerably so, than the distance between the axilla and the 
eye ; the hind limb is generally shorter than the interspace between the axilla and the 
tip of the snout. ‘Tail variable, generally longer than the head and body. 

Coloration variable, but generally the upper surface is brown or olive-brown, 
occasionally greyish, marked by narrow transverse black bands about the breadth of a 
scale, and not unfrequently broken up into closely opposed spots, each with a longi- 
tudinally narrow white spot or shaft. In others the black and white spots of the back 
may entirely disappear, or if present be small and feebly developed, and in such cases 
there is generally a light-coloured stripe down each side of the lizard, thus defining a 
brown dorsal band. In some, the spots are absent on the body but present on the 
sacral region, on the tail, and on the hind limbs. 

The largest specimen in my collection from Egypt measures as follows:—Snout to 
vent 122 millim., tail 84 millim. 


CHALCIDES OCELLATUS, 213 


This species is found all over Egypt, except in the utterly sterile desert, and my 
specimens came from the alluvium, the margin of the desert, and from the oases. It 
is one of the most prevalent lizards, being found not only in the open conntry, but in 
the towns and villages. 

It has a wide range over Northern Africa, that may be defined as lying to the north 
of a line drawn from the mouth of the Juba river in Somaliland, to Cape Jubi, on the 
Atlantic coast, in El Gada, opposite to the Canary Islands. It is also found over a 
limited portion of Southern Europe, comprising Southern Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, Greece, 
Cyprus, and the islands of Malta, Lampedusa, Cyprus, Chios, Rhodes, Limosa, &c. In 
Asia, it occurs in Arabia, Syria, Persia, and Sind. 

It is known as mle =sihliya }. 

In the extreme eastern limit of the distribution of this species, lizards are met with 
at Assab, in Eritrea, in which the black and white spots of the back are either 
present or entirely disappear ; they are always, however, more or less preserved on the 
sacral region, hind limbs, and tail. ‘There is, besides, an indication of the pale dorso- 
lateral band, which is also present in the large variety tiligugu, and also not unfre- 
quently in forma typica itself. ‘These lizards have only 24 rows of scales round the 
body, whereas in tiligugu the scales vary from 28 to 34, and in forma typica from 28 
to 32. This Eritrean variety, with a low lepidosis, is of small size, and has been 
indicated by Mr. Boulenger as ragazzit. Professor Boettger and Mr. Boulenger have 
pointed out, however, the occurrence in the same region of lizards conforming in their 
essential characters to the typical form. Other lizards are also found in Eritrea with 
26 to 28 rows of scales in which the ocellated spots, although present all over the 
back, are small and feebly marked, and in which a light stripe extends along each side. 
Mr. Boulenger regards them as intermediate between the typical form and var. ragazzit, 
and has proposed for them the name humilis. He says, ‘they agree with the var. 
ragazzii in the small size, the largest measuring only 96 millim. from snout to vent.” 

At Tokar and Suakin, lizards similar to those described as var. humilis occur, and in 
the latter locality associated with others as pronouncedly spotted as forma typica, and 
with their scales varying from 28 to 30. At Durrur, about 50 miles to the north of 
Suakin, lizards conforming to the coloration and general characters of forma typica 
have 28 rows of scales, but one specimen differs from them in having the spots less 
numerous and more scattered, and in it the number of scales is 26. ‘These Durrur 
specimens show indications of a pale lateral line, as in the Eritrean lizards, and one of 
them, with 26 scales round the body, is 115 millim. from snout to vent—the largest 
lizard of this species from the delta, with 30 scales, being 106 millim.; others at 
Suakin, with 28 scales, measure 119 millim.; so that the dimensions of var. humilis 
equal those of forma typica. 


* Vide supra, page 207. 


214 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


At Wadi Halfa, lizards with the typical coloration also show indications of a pale 
dorso-lateral band. ‘Their lepidosis is 28, and they attain to 104 millim. from the 
snout to the vent. Proceeding still further northwards to Phile and Assuan, the 
number 28 still prevails, and the mixed coloration of both the typical form and of 
var. humilis is preserved; but at the former of these localities 30 rows of scales are 
met with. Specimens with 28 and 30 scales are 112 millim. long. 

At Luxor, however, although the usual markings are very distinct, a pale lateral band 
arises from each side of the occiput. In some, it only reaches a short way beyond the 
shoulder, while, in others, it is prolonged along nearly the entire length of the trunk. 
These pale bands are generally spotted with white, while the mesial brown band is 
unspotted. In one presenting these characters a short dark brown band from behind 
the ear is superadded, and is continued over the shoulder, marked with white spots, 
while in another the spots are nearly obsolete. These Luxor varieties thus lead into 
the one from Tangiers described and figured by Boulenger as wittata, whilst, at the 
same time, they have a strong resemblance to ¢idigugu; and the coloration of some of 
them resembles that of a specimen of that variety captured by me at Hammam R’irha, 
in Algeria, but differs from it in the absence of the dark lateral band that occurs 
‘below the pale dorso-lateral band. In their coloration they also resemble specimens 
from Duirat, Tunisia, which are more or less intermediate between typical ocellata and 
tiligugu. 

In the oasis of Khargeh, to the south-west of Luxor, the usual spots are obsolete in 
one specimen, except on the posterior part of the body and on the tail, with distinct 
indications of pale lateral bands. In the only other example from the same locality 
the upper surface is uniform pale olive-brown unspotted, except on the tail, and it also 
has pale lateral bands. These specimens have 28 rows of scales, and the largest 
measures 96 millim. from snout to vent. These Luxor and Khargeh lizards thus 
present nearly the same characters as the Tokar and Suakin individuals already 
mentioned, so that they fall under var. humilis, Blgr., but they attain to a greater size 
than any typical example of the species from Lower Egypt, as the largest is 122 millim. 
from snout to vent, whereas the largest individual from the Maryut District is only 
105 millim. 

In the Fayum and at Gizeh, 28 is more prevalent than 30, but to the north of this 
30 is almost universal, and as we reach the coast-line of the Mediterranean examples 
with 32 rows of scales round the body occur, thus overlapping the lepidosis of tiligugu. 
From the oasis of Siwah, to the west of Alexandria, I have received, through the 
assistance of Mr. Birdwood, five specimens}, which I suppose are the first that 
have ever been collected in that region, so difficult of access. Although all of 
them have 50 rows of scales round the body, each varies considerably in colour. 
In none is there any pale lateral band, but the general tint of the upper surface 


1 These specimens are not included in the table on p. 219, as it was in type before they were received. 


CHALCIDES OCELLATUS. 215 


and the transverse lines of black and white spots vary much. Two are coloured 
according to the typical form, and have the same slim body. Another has the same 
general tint, but very few spots; while one resembling it has the tail pale yellow, 
and thus in somewhat strong contrast to the body with its cross markings. The fifth 
has a slightly heavier body than the rest, but it is the largest, and it is rich pale 
yellowish olive, with only a few spots scattered over it, but not in transverse 
continuity. 

From these facts it is evident that there is a distinct rise in the number of the 
scales round the body as we trace the species northwards from Eritrea to the delta of 
the Nile, and that the tendency is for the low lepidosis of 24 and 26 to be associated 
with a disappearance, or partial disappearance, of the characteristic spots, and the 
high numbers with their presence, but not invariably so. The specimens from the 
Sinaitic Peninsula have 28 to 30 rows of scales, and are of the typical coloration. A 
specimen from the neighbouring region of Midian, with 28 rows of scales, has all the 
general characteristics in form and colouring of the var. téligugu, but with this slight 
exception, that the brown spots are more marked than the white ones. It measures 
only 100 millim. from snout to vent. A specimen collected by me at Hadrun Khan, 
near the Dead Sea, and others obtained by Canon Tristram in the same great depression, 
and also at Jerusalem, and a specimen in the British Museum from Jaffa, are generally 
characterized by the presence of 30 rows of scales, exceptionally 28, associated with all 
the other features of the typical form; and this is true also of a specimen from Cyprus. 
Passing to Aden, the species attains there a considerable size, but still adheres to the 
typical form, but with 28 to 30 rows of scales. It differs somewhat in its coloration 
from the Egyptian individuals, as the black and white spots are more strongly deve- 
loped, and the white more so than the black, and their arrangement in transverse lines 
is less apparent. In the intensity of these markings the Aden lizard distinctly recalls 
that prevalent among the lizards on the Berbera side of the Gulf of Aden. Among 
17 specimens from the Hadramut, some have the pronounced coloration of the Berbera 
lizards, while others, so far as coloration is concerned, are in no way distinguishable 
from those from Egypt. Only in 5 specimens out of 17 are there 28 rows of scales, while 
12 have 30, and 1 has 32. A similar condition of things exists at Muscat as regards 
the strength of the coloration ; but associated with it is a marked variation in which 
the whole upper surface of the lizard is rich dark brown, and in place of the black 
spots brown spots occur, a little darker than the general colour, while the white 
spots are reduced to fine points, and the labials become nearly entirely brown, with a 
small white central spot. Proceeding on to Bushire, the typical form is still preserved, 
and the strength of the coloration is as in Berbera, Aden, and Muscat individuals, 
but, as in the last-mentioned, some specimens show a distinct tendency to assume 
the brown garb. Their scales vary from 28 to 30. Further to the north, viz. at Jask, 
in Persia, the Eastern Arabian pronounced coloration is also present; but one lizard 


216 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


is pale grey and another rich brown, and both have 30 rows of scales. In tracing 
the typical form of this lizard to the east, one is struck by the increase which it 
manifests in size over those found in Egypt; and in this respect the Arabian lizards 
also recall those found between Obbia and Berbera, in Somaliland, but they have 
never the thick heavy bodies of var. tiligugu. 

In the British Museum there is a specimen of this lizard from Cyprus decidedly 
referable to forma typica. It has 30 rows of scales, and the coloration is typical, but 
the spots are somewhat less numerous than in Egyptian specimens, and the general 
tint is grey, and in these respects it resembles the Syrian lizards. 

Proceeding to the west of Egypt, two Tripoli examples of this species (British 
Museum) in no way differ in form from those found at Alexandria, and have the highest 
lepidosis, viz. 32; but one has the markings of forma typica, and the other those of 
var. tiligugu. At Duirat, on the western frontier of Tripoli, the same form occurs with 
30 and 31 rows of scales and the typical markings. These specimens are probably half- 
grown individuals of the very large lizard found along with them, and which differs 
from typical ocel/atus in its much thicker and less rounded body—a feature by which 
this Tripoli lizard is distinctly referable to var. tiligugu. Still further to the west, 
viz. on the road between Biskra and Tuggurt, the lizards are intermediate in the 
form of their bodies between forma typica and tiligugu. In coloration they resemble 
tiligugu, but their scales present all the variations found in Lower Egypt, as they 
range from 28 to 32. Specimens exactly similar to them are found to the north 
at Guelma, on the Tell, and even at Tunis. A specimen collected by M. Lataste 
on the Plain of Sersou has 34 rows of scales round the body, and the dorso-lateral 
pale line well developed, more so than in any of the other specimens, and with 
the brown lateral line spotted with white also present. Indeed, this lizard in its 
coloration is exactly like a lizard from Syracuse in the British Museum. To the 
west of this all the Algerian lizards conform to the tiligugu type. I met with it at 
Hammam Meskoutine, where it is common, with 30 rows of scales, and also at 
Hammam R’irha, still further to the west, where it attains to a greater size than in the 
former locality, and has 32 rows of scales. In the Hammam Meskoutine specimen the 
black and white spots are much reduced in number, and along the lower border of the 
pale latero-dorsal line there is a distinct tendency to form a dark brown baud below 
it, a feature which is well seen in the young specimen from Guelma, and is indeed 
more or less characteristic of all the Algerian examples, and is very distinctive of 
tiligugu from Malta, Sicily, &c. I have also met with two young individuals at Oran, 
and as far west as Tlemcen, with the coloration of forma typica, but with the lateral 
brown band well developed. Each has 32 rows of scales. In the British Museum a 
young specimen from the island of Lampedusa is coloured exactly like forma typica, 
with only the very faintest indication of a pale lateral line, whilst an older specimen 


CHALCIDES OCELLATUS. 217 


has the thick body and flat back of tiligugw, but the coloration of forma typica, with a 
pale dorso-lateral line, and the dark brown band below it only present behind the ear 
and over the shoulder. In the island of Limosa the scales number 30 in two 
specimens in the British Museum; they have the thick body of tiligugu, but the 
coloration is very dark, almost blackish brown, with the pale dorso-lateral line narrow 
and the brown lateral line very broad and much spotted with white. The black spots 
tend to form the characteristic transverse lines, but obscurely, in consequence of the 
dark colour, and the white spots are small but numerous. In Malta the lizard is large, 
like the Hammam Meskoutine and Hammam R’irha specimens, but with the pale dorso- 
lateral band very distinct, and also the brown white-spotted band below it. They have 
30 rows of scales. In another specimen in the British Museum labelled Mediterranean 
there are 32 rows of scales, and this specimen in its coloration is very different from 
all the others, as the black and white ocelli, which are always more or less present in 
tiligugu, even although they cease to form continuous, zigzag, transverse lines, are 
absent in this specimen. Its back is covered with a succession of irregular brown 
markings tending to cross the body irregularly, and to be arranged more or less longi- 
tudinally. The pale dorso-lateral line is present but obscure, whereas the dark brown 
band is broad and spotted with pale olive-brown, which is the general colour of the 
upper parts. A specimen from Syracuse has 32 rows of scales, and is exactly like the 
specimen from the plateau of Sersou, in Algeria, the pale dorso-lateral and lateral 
brown bands being developed equally in both. There is a specimen in the British 
Museum from Sardinia presented by Prof. Bonelli; it is somewhat faded, but it has all 
the colour characters of the Syracuse specimen, but with 30 rows of scales; it has, 
however, the rounded attenuated body of forma typica. 

At the city of Morocco, lizards with exactly the same form of body as the variety 
tiligugu are met with, but with the number of the scales rising from 34 to 40 
(=the var. polylepis, Blgr.). Associated with this increase in the lepidosis there is a 
. distinct change in the colouring of var. tiligugu, as the light dorso-lateral line and the 
dark brown lateral line with white spots entirely disappear. The characteristic 
transverse zigzag lines into which the black and white spots—forma typica, but less 
so in ¢2ligugu—tend to arrange themselves become very obscure, but are still more or 
less indicated in some specimens, more especially in the young; but the general 
character is for each scale to be occupied by a small yellowish spot and margined with 
brown. At Rabat, still further to the west, and on the coast, the black or brown 
margins to the scales form continuous longitudinal lines enclosing the pale spots. 
This is a much better marked variety than téliyugu, to the dimensions of which it 
attains. At Dar el Beida (Casablanca) the scales are more feebly margined with 
brown, and the white spots are numerous, and their transverse arrangement is distinctly 


visible. 
2F 


218 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


At Tangier, lizards occur, the leading features of which, so far as coloration is 
concerned, are the entire absence of any trace of either black or white spots on any 
part of the body, and the presence of great longitudinal bands of colour. Along the 
middle of the back from the snout to the tail there is a broad brown band which 
rapidly contracts between the hind limbs and is prolonged on to the upper surface 
of the tail as a narrow band. A narrow pale band, almost white, begins behind 
the nostril, gradually expanding till it becomes nearly half the breadth of the brown 
area of the back, and is continued on to the side of the tail. Beginning behind 
the eye is a deep black band, as broad as the previous band, and, like it, prolonged 
more or less on to the side of the tail. From below the ear, under the last band, 
a distinct pale greenish-blue band passes along the side of the body, extending well 
on to the lateral aspect of the belly. The underparts yellowish. The scales on the 
brown dorsal band have generally brownish posterior margins. The labials are marked 
almost exactly as in forma typica. ‘There is a general tendency for the upper labials 
to decrease in size towards the fourth, but in a specimen from Sardinia the upper 
labials have the same character. The snout also is somewhat broader than in 
examples of forma typica from Egypt, but not more so than in tiligugw. The scales 
vary between 32 and 34. The uniformly coloured examples of forma typica in the 
extreme south-eastern range of the distribution of the species prepare us for the 
possible disappearance of the ocelli in other localities, and the existence of other 
examples in the same region with pale dorso-lateral lines opens up the way to the 
appearance of the pronounced pale bands of this variety. In the same way the dark 
brown lateral band that shows itself in tidigugu foreshadows the black lateral band of 
the variety vittata. In tiligugu the side of the body below the last-mentioned band is 
more or less suffused with bluish green, the equivalent of the more pronounced area of 
the same colour in vittata. The seeming divergence of coloration that subsists between 
such a variety as this from Tangier and the typically ocellated lizard is very striking, 
but the facts that have been adduced suffice to link the extremes together. 

An examination of the scales of the 60 specimens from the localities mentioned in 
the accompanying table brings out the fact that the lowest number of scales (26) is 
not found in the northern extremity of the range of the species in Egypt, and that 
30 is extremely rare at Suakin and Tokar, indeed exceptional; but of 52 examples 
collected between the shores of the Mediterranean and the Fayum, 20 have 30 rows 
of scales round the body, 11 have 28, and 1 has 32. Four of seven specimens 
obtained at Luxor have 26 scales, and three 28 round the body. Out of eight 
lizards from between Assuan and Wadi Halfa, the oasis of Khargeh and from Berys, 
seven have 28 rows of scales round the body, and one 30. ‘Three specimens from 
Durrur have 28 scales and one 26. Among nine individuals from Suakin and Tokar, 
six have 26 scales, two have 28, and one has 30. 


CHALCIDES OCELLATUS. 219 


Table giving the length (in millim.) of the body, snout to vent, of Chalcides ocellatus, 
and the number of scales round the body in each individual. 


| Snout | Scales | Snout | Scales Snout | Scales 

cant, || Haake yout | body: sets || tees 

48 30 | Gizeh. 87 30 | Mahallet el Kebir. || 100 30 | Cairo. 

55 28 | Cairo. 87 28 | Gizeh. 101 26 | Luxor. 

57 28 | Fayum. 87 28 5 102 | 28 | Wadi Halfa. 
58 26 | Luxor. 88 26 | Suakin. 102 30 | Ramleh. 

59 28 | Suakin. 89 26 a) 103 28 | Luxor. 

60 28 | Durrur. 90 28 | Marsa Matru. 104 | 28 | Wadi Halfa. 
65 30 | Gizeh. 90 30 | Cairo. 104 | 28 | Gizeh. 

68 30 | Beltim. 91 30 | Suakin. 104 | 30 " 

75 32 | Alexandria. 91 26 | Tokar. 105 30 | Maryut. 

75 28 | Durrur. 91 30 | Ramleh. 106 | 30 | Alexandria. 
76 30 | Alexandria. 91 28 | Gizeh. 107 28 | Phile. 

77 30 a, 93 26 | Suakin. 108 26 | Luxor. 

78 28 ‘| Luxor. 95 26 | Tokar. 110 26 | Suakin. 

79 30 | Mahallet el Kebir. || 95 30 | Marsa Matru. 112 28 | Phile. 

79 30 | Cairo. 96 30 | Cairo. 112 30 Fh 

81 28 | Fayum. 96 28 | Oasis of Khargeh. || 115 26 | Durrur. 

83 30 | Mahallet el Kebir. || 97 30 | Mahallet el Kebir. || 115 26 | Luxor. 

84 28 | Fayum. 97 28 | Fayum. 117 | 28 | Durrur. 

85 28 | Beltim. 100 28 | Assuan. 119 28 | Suakin. 

85 28 | Oasis of Khargeh. |) 100 30 | Maryut. 122 28 | Luxor. 


More materials are needed from a much wider range of localities in Egypt, the 
Egyptian Sudan, and from the Abyssinian and Somaliland regions, in order to throw 
additional light on the position in which the supposed varieties ragazzii and humilis 
stand to the typical form, and when brought together it would add to the value of the 
results they might yield were each specimen carefully sexed beforehand, and some 
idea formed of its approximate age. 

242 


220 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


CHALCIDES SEPOIDES, Aud. (Plate XXVIII. fig. 2.) 


Mabuya capistrata, Fitz. (not described), Neue Class. Rept. 1826, p. 52. 

Scincus sepsoides, Aud. Descr. de Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1829, p. 180, Suppl. pl. 2. figs. 9. 1-9. 2. 

Scincus sepsoides, var., Aud. op. cit. p. 181, Suppl. pl. 2. figs. 10.1-10. 2. 

Sphenops capistratus, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 161; D. & B. v. 1839, p. 578, pl. lvii. fig. 3 ; 
Riippell, Mus. Senck. ii. 1845, p. 304; Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 204; 
A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 153; Gravenh. N. Acta Leop.-Carol. xxiii. 1851, i. 
p. 364, pl. xxxix.; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 272; op. cit. 1864, p. 47; Strauch, 
Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 42; Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. 1. 1876, 
p- 109; Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1878-79, p. 72; op. cit. 1879-80, p. 192; Tristram, 
West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 153. 

Sphenops sepsoides, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 54; Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 122; 
Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 308. 

Chalcides sepoides, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 407; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 141; 
Pfeffer, Jahrb. Hamb. Wissensch. Anst. vi. 1889, p.9; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 
1893, p. 114; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliv. 1895, p. 84. 

Chalcides (Sphenops) sepoides, Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 105. 


6. Between Suez and Ismailia. 


2. Abukir. 
36. Neighbourhood of Pyramids of Gizeh. 
1. Kafr Amar. 


2. Tel el Amarna. 


Snout wedge-shaped, projecting beyond the labial margin. Eye very small; ear an 
oblique slit close to the angle of the mouth, covered usually by three large pointed 
scales. Nostril anterior to the suture of the rostral and first labial; a small postnasal 
over the first and second labials; supranasals generally united as a single shield; 
frontal broader than long, or as long as broad. Usually four upper labials, the fourth 
below the eye. Body elongate, with the sides angular. ‘Twenty-four rows of smooth 
scales round the body, occasionally twenty-six. Limbs feeble; the fore limb exceeds 
the distance between the eye and the end of the snout, and the hind limb almost 
invariably that between the axilla and the eye; digits 5—5, occasionally one suppressed 
on fore limb, rarely on the hind limb. Tail elongately conical, about four or five sixths 
the length of the body and head, or occasionally nearly as long. 

Pale yellowish above, with eleven narrow brown longitudinal lines running from the 
occiput and the sides of the head between the rows of scales and continued on to the 
tail, but diminishing in numbers towards its end. A dark streak from the nostril 
through the eye to the temporal region and more or less on to the neck. ‘The frontal 


and the shields behind it margined with brown, Sides and underparts yellowish 
white. 


bo 
bh 
e 


CHALCIDES SEPOIDES. 


Measurements &c. of C. sepoides, Aud., Lower Egypt (in millim.). 


m= |e |e | | 
46 40 3 £ 9 9 32 24. 
65 61 4 6 12 15 44 24 
75 63 5 7 14 16 53 24 
87 85 5 8 15 19 60 24 
88 il 6 a 16 19 62 24 
90 84 5) 9 17 20 60 24 
96 80 5 8 16 19 72 24 

109 20 6 So 19 21 81 24 


This lizard, besides being found in sand, below stones, is likewise very common on 
the sand-drifts that occur in the hollows and depressions on the desert, also at the base 
of sparse vegetation and among the sand-dunes along the coast. 

It moves rapidly through the sand, but when it finds itself completely covered, it 
comes to rest generally close to the surface. 

The stomach is usually filled with the remains of small beetles, with a considerable 
admixture of sand swallowed in the act of seizing its prey. 

It is widely distributed throughout Egypt and its oases, and over Northern Africa 
from Senegambia to the shores of the Red Sea. It is also found in Arabia and in 
Syria. 

In a specimen from the Algerian Sahara at ‘Tuggurt there are 26 rows of scales 
round the body, and a similar number is found in specimens from the Sinaitic 
Peninsula, Jerusalem, and Jaffa, but in the last-mentioned locality 24 are also found, 
and also in Senegal. In Egypt, on the other hand, not a single specimen collected by 
me has more than 24 rows of scales round the body. 

The length of the limbs varies considerably among individuals from the same 
locality. 

The numbers of the digits on the fore limb are unstable, as two specimens from Tel 
el Amarna have only three well-developed fingers, the first and fourth being reduced 
to mere rudiments assuming the form of minute lateral knobs. Two specimens also 
from Abukir have only four fingers, whereas the 36 individuals from the neighbour- 
hood of the Pyramids of Gizeh have five digits to each extremity, with one single 


222 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


exception, the absence of a finger being probably due, in this instance, not to non- 
development, but to an injury. In no Egyptian specimen have I ever found the hind 
limb with less than five digits on each foot. 

In three specimens from the Pyramids of Gizeh there is complete division of the 
supranasal, while in three others there is partial division. A specimen from Senegal 
in the British Museum has it also divided. Only in one specimen is there any variation 
in the labial that enters the orbit. It occurs in a specimen from near the Pyramids of 
Gizeh, in which the third upper labial is under the eye, but only on the left side of the 
head. 

Dr. Walter Innes informs me that this lizard is known to the natives of Lower 
Egypt as ys\i9=daffana, or the burrower. 

I have already mentioned incidentally that little wooden and bronze boxes containing 
mummified lizards are met with in Egypt, and that there is generally on the lid a 
representation of the lizard preserved within. Lefebvre, on his visit to Egypt, obtained 
a small wooden box containing a lizard from an excavation in the neighbourhood of 
Thebes. It was examined by one of the authors of the ‘ Erpétologie Générale,’ who 
pronounced the mummy, which was simply in a dried condition rolled in linen, to be 
an example of this species (Chalcides sepoides). At that time, the Egyptian collection 
in the Louvre contained another little box that also held a mummy of this species ; 
and in the British Museum there are also a few small boxes containing lizards, 
not yet identified, but some of which may prove to be the same species. Why it was 
selected for preservation is difficult to conjecture. 

C. boulengeri, from Tunisia, is a nearly allied species, with 28 rows of scales round 
the body, with 8 upper labials, and the fifth labial under the eye, and the nostril 
not in advance of the suture between the rostral and the first labial. 


bS 
bo 
oo 


CHALCIDES DELISLII. 


CHALCIDES DELISLU, Lataste. (Plate XXVIII. fig. 3.) 


Allodactylus de (Islet, Lataste, Journ. Zool. v. 1876, p. 238, pl. x. 

Chalcides delislii, Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1887, p. 407. 

Chalcides (Sphenops) delist, Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 105. 
3. Plain of Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
7. Plain of Suakin. 

83. Durrur. Major-General A. Hunter, D.S.O. 

20. Durrur. 


This species resembles C. sepotdes, but differs from it in having its ear slightly 
further away from the angle of the mouth, and by the absence of a fringe of pointed 
scales over it, the orifice being covered by ordinary scales which, however, leave 
it more or less visible. Its limbs are weak, like those of C. sepoides, but the fore 
foot is tridactyle and the hind foot tetradactyle. There is no postnasal and the 
supranasals are distinct. Seven upper labials are present, but, as in the foregoing 
species, the fourth is under the eye. It has generally 24 smooth scales round the 
body, but sometimes there may be only 22 and in others 26. 

The largest specimen measures 94 mm. from snout to vent (tail imperfect); fore 
limb 6°77 mm., hindlimb 15mm. A perfect specimen, with a total length of 84 mm., 
has the tail 70 mm. long; fore limb 6:5, hind limb 14. 

It is common among loose sand on the maritime plain at Suakin and at Durrur. 

It is more closely allied, however, to C. sphenopsiformis than to C. sepoides, but differs 
from the former by having a longer fore limb, tridactyle instead of didactyle ; in all 
other respects the two are identical. 

Each of the 33 specimens has 3 digits on the fore foot and 4 on the hind foot, and 
there are only two exceptions to 24 scales round the body, one having 22 and the 
other 26, both specimens being from Durrur. Seven upper and lower labials are 
present in all but one, which has 6 above and 6 below, and there is only one exception 
to the rule that the fourth upper labial is below the orbit, and in this instance the 
third labial occupies that position. 

In three specimens of C. sphenopsiformis in the British Museum each has 2 digits 
anteriorly and 4 posteriorly, and 24 rows of scales round the body. ‘There are 7 upper 
labials in each, but only 6 lower labials, and, in all, the fourth labial is below the eye. 
Each has a postnasal over the first labial. 

The type specimen of C. delislii was said to have been brought from Japan by 
M. Savatier, a ship captain. It formed part of the collection of the father of Professor 
A. Trémeau-Rochebrune, in whose collection it stood under the name of Seps chalcides. 
As the genus Chalcides is unknown in Japan, Mr. Boulenger has suggested that the 


224 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


type may possibly have been received from Senegambia, where both C. sphenopsiformts 
and ©. sepoides occur. M. Lataste, finding that it possessed only three digits 
anteriorly and four posteriorly, created a new genus for its reception, called 
Allodactylus. C. sepoides, however, has the fingers occasionally reduced to four and 
eyen to three, so no importance can be attached to the number of digits found in 
such degraded limbs as those of the members of this group. 


Synopsis of Egyptian Species of Chalcides. 


A. Body round, elongate ; snout conical. 
Limbs pentadactyle; nostril above suture of rostral and first labial. . . . C. ocellatus. 
B. Body angular at sides, elongate ; snout wedge-shaped. 
Limbs pentadactyle; fore limb occasionally tetra- or tridactyle. 
Ear with a fringe of pointed scales. . . . . . . . «=... . « C. sepoides. 
Fore limb tridactyle ; hind limb tetradactyle. 
Ear without a fringe, more or less hidden by scales . . . . . . . . C, delisli. 


CHAMALEON VULGARIS. 225 


Jt Jel IP IEO CLG OS SA 


CHAMAILEONTID. 


CHAMALEON. 
Chameleo, Laurenti, Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 45. 


Body compressed ; head angular, with strong ridges ; eye large, globular, covered by 
a thick granular lid, perforated by a hole in its centre; ear hidden; digits in two 
opposable groups of two and three; palmar and plantar scales smooth ; claws simple ; 
tail prehensile, as long as, or longer than, the body. | 


CHAMALEON VULGARIS, Daud. (Plate X XIX.) 


Lacerta chameleon, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, p. 297; part., Linn. Syst. Nat. xu. ed. 
1766, p. 364; Forskal, Descr. An. 1775, p. ix; Poiret, Voy. en Barbarie, i. 1789, p. 288. 

Chameleo zeylanicus, Laur. Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 46. 

Chameleo vulgaris, Daud. Hist. Rept. iv. 1802, pp. 181, 202; Rozet, Voy. dans la rég. d’Alger, i. 
18338, p. 283; part., Gray, Syn. Rept. Griffith’s An. King. ix. 1831, p.53; Cat. Liz. B. M. 
1845, p. 265; Dum. & Bib. i. 1836, p. 204; Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. (2) vi. 1836, p. 309; 
op. cit. (3) x. 1848, p. 204; Guichenot, Explor. Alg., Sc. Phys. Zool. v. 1850, p.3; Tristram, 
Proe. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 476; West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 154; Steindachner, 
Unger & Kotschy’s Insel Cypern, 1865, p. 572; De Betta, Fauna d'Italia, pt. iv. Rett. ed 
Anfibi, 1874, p. 18; part., Schreib. Herp. Europ. 1875, p. 496; Gasco, Viage. in Egitto, 
pt. ii. 1876, p. 105; Lortet, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, iii. 1883, p. 187; Reichenow, S.B. 
Ges. naturf. Freunde Berl. 1883, p. 149; Boettger, Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. xiii. 1884, p. 129; 
Kobelt’s Reiseerin. Alg. u. Tunis, 1885, p. 472; S.B. Ak. Wissensch. Berl. 1888, p. 169; Verh. 
zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlvi. 1896, p. 278; Hart, Fauna & Flora Sinai &c. 1891, p. 210. 

Chamealeo pallida, Perry, Arcana, 1811 (sig. 0), plate. 

Chameleo africanus, Licht. Verz. Doubl. Mus. Berl. 1823, p. 103; Guérin, Icon. Rept. Rég. An. 
1829-44, pl. xv. fig. 1; Schlegel, Wagner’s Reis. 11. 1841, p. 111. 

Chameleon carinatus, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 162; Berthold, Abh. k. Ges. Wissensch. 
Gdttingen, i. 1838 (1843), p. 9. 

Chameleon subcroceus, Merr. op. cit. p. 162. 

Le Caméléon trapu, Is. Geoftr. St.-Hil. Descr. de ?Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 184, pl. iv. fig. 3. 

Chameleo siculus, Grohmann, Nouv. descr. Camal. sic. 1832, p. 7. 

Chameleon hispanicus, Fitz. Syst. Rept. 18438, p. 42. 

Chameleon rimulosus, Fitz. op. cit. p. 42. 

Chameleo vulgaris, var. A, A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 31; Arch. Mus. vi. 1852, 
pl. xxi. fig. 1. 

Chameleo cinereus, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii. sér.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 21; Boettger, 
Abh, Senck. nat, Ges. ix. 1873-75, p. 132; Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1878-79, p. 89. 


26 


226 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Chameleon vulgaris, part., Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 469 ; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mose. 1879, 
no. 8, p. 40; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 489; op. cit. 1879, p. 741; Blgr. Cat. Liz. 
B. M. ii. 1887, p. 4438, pl. xxxix. fig. 1 (head); Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 142; Mina- 
Palumbo, Naturalista Sicilano, ix. 1890, p. 257; Konig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, 
p- 22; Boettger, Kat. Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p.117; Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlvi. 1896, 
p. 278; Olivier, Mém. Soe. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 105; Peracea, Boll. Mus. Torino, ix. 
1894, no. 167, p. 10; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 106; Francaviglia, Boll. 
Soc. Rom. Stud. Zool. v. fase. i. & ii. 1896, p. 40. 

Chameleon auratus, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 469. 

Chameleon fasciatus, J. A. Smith, Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinb. iii. 1866, p. 306. 

Chameleo vulgaris, var. recticrista, Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, p. 198. 

Chameleo sp., F. Miiller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vil. 1885, p. 715, pl. xi. 

Chameleo saharicus, F. Miller, op. cit. vii. 1887, p. 295. 


1 gand2¢. Ain Musa. 
2juv. Egypt. 
2 ¢and4¢9. Marsa Matru. 


Casque moderate, raised posteriorly, anteriorly convex; a small occipital dermal lobe 
on each side continued to the apex of the casque; supraorbital ridge prolonged on 
to the casque, but becoming indistinct as it ascends; the distance between the angle 
of the mouth to the apex of the casque about equals the length of the labial border ; 
the distance from the base of the casque anteriorly to its summit almost equals the 
distance between the tip of the snout to the middle of the eye. Limbs well developed ; 
no tarsal spur in the male. Tail shorter than, or as long as, the body and head. 
Sides of the head and casque with small and large polygonal tubercles, more or less 
conical or flat, largest on the free borders of the occipital lobes. Body with minute 
granules, somewhat varying in size, largest along the throat-folds. A feeble dorsal 
ridge of enlarged, somewhat pointed, conical tubercles, with a line of enlarged body- 
granules on each side of it. A gular ridge of large, conical, backwardly pointed 
tubercles, becoming gradually reduced in size posteriorly. 

Colour usually green, with two interrupted white bands from opposite the middle of 
the occipital lobe, along the sides, to the base of the tail, and another from the axilla 
to the groin margined with darker green. ‘The intervals between these lateral markings 
are leaden black in some, with still blacker spots. Occasionally there are about 26 
reddish-brown cross-bands between the nape of the neck and the end of the tail. The 
mesial ventral line of scales white. In some specimens the colour is greyish brown, 
with similar markings as in the green phase. 

The majority of specimens from Ain Musa were green, but some of them showed no 
traces of that colour in life, being wholly greyish brown. At Marsa Matru, where the 
species is common, this colour also occurs, and I have figured it in contrast to the green 
or more prevalent colour, ‘This brown colour has been noticed by other observers. 


Pl. XXIX. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


CHAMELEON VULGARIS. 


Fig. 2, Wells of Moses, Suez. 


> 


Fig. 1 ?, Marsa Matru 


CHAMZLEON VULGARIS. 


bo 
ns) 
x 


Measurements of Eqyptian examples of OC. vulgaris, ¢ and ¢ (in millim.). 


Tip of 
Snout snout t e parietal | Length | Breadth} Length | Length | Length | Length 
Sex. to Tail. panetal crest to of of of fore | of hind | of fore | of hind Locality. 
vent. Brest angle of | gape. | head. | limb. | limb. foot. foot. 
i mouth, 
3 185 | 125 41 28 27 18 54 53 12 15 | Ain Musa. 
@ 54|| Wes) Ni 42 28:7 28) |))22°5 53 | 56:5 12 14 | Marsa Matru. 


This species is distributed over Northern Africa, from Mogador to Egypt. In Asia 
it is found in the Sinaitic Peninsula, in Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor, and in some 
of the neighbouring islands, such as Cyprus, Rhodes, Chios, Xanthus, &c., and in 
Europe, in Southern Spain and along the coast of Turkey. 

In the ‘Description de Egypte’ no information is given whence the individual 
figured in that work was obtained. 

It is common at Marsa Matru, 150 miles to the west of Alexandria, but I have 
never succeeded in obtaining it in the delta. It is present, however, in the oasis of 
Ain Musa to the east of Suez, into which it has probably been introduced by human 
agency, possibly many centuries ago, from one or other of the more or less cultivated 
valleys on the way to Mount Sinai, unless the oasis itself be the last vestige of what 
may once have been an extensive fertile region conterminous with the valleys, but now 
nearly obliterated by the encroachment of the sands of the desert. 

Mr. Noel Beyts, of Suez, informs me that he has heard from authentic sources that 
the chameleon now exists in the cultivated gardens on the banks of the Freshwater 
Canal at Suez, and he says that as there was no vegetation of any description near Suez 
before the Freshwater Canal was made, about 25 years ago, he presumes that it 
was brought from the oasis of Ain Musa; indeed he believes that chameleons were 
purposely introduced into the gardens surrounding the works connected with the 
water-supply of Suez. 

The Arabic name of the chameleon is il > = hirbdya, according to my informant, 
Dr. W. Innes (Cameron, \, > =hurba). The natives do not distinguish the one species 
from the other. 

Kuhl, in his meagre description of C. africanus, refers to fig. 1, pl. 82, of the first 
vol. of Seba, which represents a chameleon with a well-developed tarsal spur and an 
occipital dermal lobe, and consequently not C. vulgaris, but possibly either C. caleartfer 
or C. calcaratus. 

The C. auratus was founded on a specimen of C. vulgaris from Arabia. 


The direction and curvature of the parietal crest may vary considerably, as in some 
2642 


228 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


it is nearly straight backwards, while in others the anterior curvature may be great. 
Gravid females with the parietal crest almost sessile, or more or less recumbent, 
correspond to the Caméléon trapu of Is. Geoff. St.-Hilaire. The occipital lobes also 
vary considerably in the degree of the backward convexity, but they are never absent. 

The length of the tail may sometimes fall considerably short of the distance between 
the snout and the vent, while in others it may exceed it. 

The number of enlarged granules on the body is liable to vary, also the size of the 
tubercles on the head and on the occipital lobes. 


CHAMALEON CaLyprratus, A. Dum. (Plate XXX.) 


Chameleo calyptratus, A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 31 & ftnote p.33; Arch. Mus. vi. 
1852, p. 259, pl. xxi. fig. 1; Peters, Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Freunde, 1882, p. 43; Blgr. Cat. Liz. 
B. M. iii. 1887, p. 446; Mocquard, C. R. Soc. Philom. no. 12, 1895, p. 36; Anderson, Herp. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 62. 


Casque very large, greatly elevated posteriorly, with a strong anterior convexity, but 
slightly concave posteriorly ; arather feeble occipital dermal lobe on each side, but not 
continued to the apex of the casque ; supraorbital ridge not ascending upwards along the 
casque ; the distance between the angle of the mouth to the apex of the casque equals 
that between the tip of the snout and the shoulder ; the distance from the base of the 
casque, anteriorly, to its summit equals the distance between the tip of the snout and 
the front of the shoulder. Limbs well developed; a tarsal spur in the male. Tail 
longer than the head and body. Sides of the head and casque with large polygonal 
flat scales, those along the margins of the casque more or less conical, and largest 
along the free border of the occipital lobes. Body with small tubercles separated by 
minute granules. A dorsal ridge of large, conical, backwardly pointed tubercles, largest 
on the anterior third of the back, becoming smaller behind, but more or less prolonged 
on to the tail. A gular ridge of triangular, sharply pointed, sickle-shaped lobules, 
diminishing in size on the two posterior thirds of the body. 

General colour of an adult male from Yemen, in alcohol, olive-green; a black band 
from the apex of the casque along its sides to above the eye; a narrow black band 
behind the eye to the angle of the mandible; a series of large, irregularly shaped, 
blackish spots on the sides arranged more or less in two longitudinal series; a black 
area from behind the mandible to the ventral crest and over the shoulder; about 20 
broadish dark bands on the tail; dorsal and ventral crests whitish. 

One of the females from the Paris Museum is olive-grey, with a yellow lateral band 
above the shoulder margined with blackish, and another from the axilla to near the 
groin. ‘The head-markings are the same as in the male. 


Pl. XXX. 


Reptiles of Egypt 


fee 
Bee. 
RTT 
Pi soy ae) 
Savaaen® 


re 
een 


ees =: 
IS x 2 
otas i. i 258%4 
Sereetpsuinigeany 
Lea ee gel Ngee 
iGaessneys 


abia. 


» Yemen, Ar: 


6 


CHAMELEON CALYPTRATUS. 


CHAMALEON CALYPTRATUS. 229 


Measurements (in millim.) of an adult male from Yemen and an adult female 
from the Nile valley. 
3. 


2. 
Totallength . . .. 6 425 4.23 
Vent totipoftal . . .. 220 235 


This species, first described by A. Duméril, from the Nile region, was recorded, in 
1882, from the island of Socotra by Peters, who, on that occasion, mentioned that 


another example, from Abyssinia, obtained by Ehrenberg, was preserved in the Berlin 
Museum. 


Ry 
Pant 


et 


One of the types of C. calyptratus, A. Dum. Nat. size. Q. Paris Museum. 


In the course of an examination of the small collection of Reptiles in the Museum 
of the Medical School at Cairo, I found a very fine male chameleon, which Dr. Walter 
Innes, the Curator, informed me came from Yemen, in Arabia. I obtained his per- 
mission to bring it to Europe, and through the unfailing courtesy of Professor Vaillant 


230 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


I was enabled to compare it in London with one of the types of (. calyptratus preserved 
in the Paris Museum. Fig. 8 (p. 229) represents the head and shoulders of the 
latter specimen of the size of nature, and if it be compared with the life-sized figure 
of the Yemen male (Plate XXX.) it will be seen that the only difference between the 
two lies in the slightly lesser development of the crest in the type, which, however, 
is sufficiently explained by the fact that it is a female. There is no other feature 
of any importance in which they differ. 

M. Mocquard, some years ago!, was disposed to regard the type specimens 
of C. calyptratus as.females of C. calcarifer, Peters, but more recently? he has 
acquiesced in Mr. Boulenger’s opinion that the two are quite distinct species, and has 
pointed out that, as there is also a specimen from Yemen in the Paris Museum, the 
two species exist side by side in Arabia, which is further verified by the Cairo male 
from the same region. 

IT am, however, not quite satisfied that, with larger materials, the differences that 
now are supposed to separate C. calcarifer from C. calyptratus may not eventually 
break down. If, however, they should not, then the two, as now, must be regarded 
as very closely allied species °. 


CHAMALEON BASILISCUS, Cope. (Plate XX XI.) 


? Chameleo africanus, Laur. Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 46. 

Chameleon vulgaris, part., Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 265; part., Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 469 ; 
Riippell, Mus. Senck. iti. 1845, p. 299; part., A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 31; 
part., Schreib. Herp. Europ. 1875, p. 496, fig. 97; Gasco, Viagg. Egitto, pt. 11. 1876, p. 105. 

? Chameleo vulgaris, Lefebvre, Abyss. vi. Zool. 1845-50, p. 193; Del Prato, Atti Soc. Ital. Se. 
Nat. xxxv. 1895, p. 25. 

Chameleon basiliscus, Cope, Proc. Ac. Philad. 1868, p. 316; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. ii. 1887, p. 446, 
pl. xxxix. fig. 3; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, ser. 2, xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 552; Boettger, Kat. 
Rept. Mus. Senck. 1893, p. 118; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 106. 

Chamelio levigatus (non Gray), Blanford, Geol. & Zool. Abyss. 1870, pp. 128, 445. 


2g, 1juv., and 1juyv. 9. Ramleh. 

1 2. Tokar. Major H. W. Jackson. 

14,3 9, and1ljuv. Suakin. 

1 9 and1juv. Wadi Halfa. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 


Casque moderate, elevated posteriorly, with a slight anterior convexity, but nearly 
yertical posteriorly ; no dermal occipital lobes ; supraorbital ridge strong, prolonged on 


* C. R. Soc. Philom. no. 19, 1893, p. 5, footnote. 
2 Op. cit, no. 12, 1895, p. 36. 
* Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 62. 


Pl XX 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


eat ty 


ON BASILISCUS. 


q 


CHAM ELI 


di Halfa. 


a 


2, W 


CHAMALEON BASILISCUS. 231 


to the side of the casque, but becoming indistinct as it ascends; the distance between 
the angle of the mouth to the apex of the casque equals or slightly exceeds the length 
of the labial border; the distance from the base of the casque anteriorly to its 
summit about equals or slightly exceeds the distance between the tip of the snout 
and the middle of the eye. Limbs well developed; a tarsal spur in the male. ‘Tail 
generally equals the length of the body and head. Sides of the head and casque with 
nearly equal, moderately large, polygonal, or round or flattened tubercles. Body with 
small granules, and with very minute ones, uniform in size, scattered among them. 
A very feeble dorsal ridge of triangular tubercles, becoming lost posteriorly ; a gular 
ridge of enlarged conical tubercles, becoming more indistinct towards the vent. 

Colour generally rich grass-green, either with two lines of spots along each side, the 
lower extending from the axilla to the groin, or the lines broken up into spots, the 
colour of both lines and spots varying from black to white; mesial ventral ridge white ; 
under surface of the limbs mottled with dusky. 


Measurements of four specimens of C. basiliscus, Cope (in millim.). 


Sex. Snout to vent. Tail. Locality. 
Gs csadoc 123 138 Ramleh. 
Gi om eo edo 115 117 Suakin. 
Q coscov00 152 152 op 
ORE cores 132 123 5 


This species occurs at Ramleh, close to Alexandria, where it is well known to 
the Arabs in charge of the gardens of Europeans; but whether it also occurs at 
Alexandria and at Cairo I have been unable to ascertain. Belon (1553 a.p.), however, 
has figured what I believe to have been this species, and in connection with his 
remarks on the Egyptian chameleon he mentions Alexandria and states that it was 
found in his day in all the garden hedges around Cairo and the banks of the Nile. 
George Sandys (1673 a.D.), in speaking of chameleons (the species, however, to which 
he referred is not indicated), states that they were in great numbers in the orchards 
of Cairo, but that they were not easily discovered on account of their colour being so 
alike to that of the trees on which they were found. Sonnini also mentions that he saw 
several chameleons at the entrance to the catacombs near Alexandria. 

In the British Museum there is a specimen said to have been obtained in Syria, but 
the extension of this species to Syria has yet to be established. In the same collection 
there are also three specimens said to have come from Western Africa, and one specimen 


bo 


oo 
Lo 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


from the Cape of Good Hope, to which it had probably been imported, as suggested by 
Mr. Boulenger. It is the common chameleon of the Suakin district and also of 
Wadi Halfa, whence it is occasionally imported into Lower Egypt, which may probably 
account for its presence at Ramleh. It is found in Abyssinia and Eritrea (Ghinda). 
James Burton’s specimen, in the British Museum, from Egypt, bears no more special 
indication of the locality whence it came. The species is probably exclusively 
African, and its headquarters appear to be the Abyssinian region and the valley of the 
Upper Nile, extending eastwards to the shores of the Red Sea. 

It bears the same Arabic name as C. vulgaris, but it is known to the Hadendowahs 
of Suakin as Aumtashoak. 

The (. africanus, Laurenti, was founded on fig. 4, pl. 83, of the first vol. of Seba. 
This figure depicts a chameleon, said to have been from Africa, with a tarsal spur and 
with no occipital lobe. ‘These are essentially the chief features of C. basiliscus, Cope. 
I hesitate, however, to adopt the former term in preference to C. basiliscus, regarding 
which there can be no doubt. 


Synopsis of Egyptian Species of Chameleon. 
No rostral appendages. 
A. Occipital dermal lobes present. 
Casque moderately elevated posteriorly, occipital dermal lobes reaching its 
apex. No tarsal spur inthe males . . . : 5 0 ¢ 0 0 6 Ohauior. 
Casque greatly elevated posteriorly, occipital dennal raibes not reaching its 
apex. -Avitarsalspurjin! the)malesiq)-) ee) a ee Cacalypinacus: 
B. Occipital dermal lobes absent. 
AN iersell Gon a WHO TAS 6 5 6 5 6 0 6 0 ot 0 oO G HeSHnOHNS. 


GLAUCONIA CAIRI. 233 


OPHIDIA. 
GLAUCONIID:!. 


GLAUCONIA. 
Glauconia, Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 139. 

Head not defined from neck; snout rounded or hooked ; rostral large, prolonged on 
to the upper surface of the head; nasal large, entering the lip, semidivided from 
behind or divided by an oblique incision ; ocular large, erect, bordering the lip or 
excluded from it, separated above from its fellow by one or more scale-like shields ; 
frontal small, scale-like ; supraocular present or absent ; preeanal plate enlarged. 


GuavconiA catRI, Dum. & Bibr. (Plate XXXII. fig. 1, and fig. 9 text.) 


Stenostoma cairi, Dum. & Bibr. vi. 1844, p. 323; Jan, Icon. Gén. 2 livr. Dec. 1861, pls. v. & vi. 
fig. 6; Icon. Gén. texte, 1864, p. 37; Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. ii. 1876, p. 116; Miiller, 
Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, p. 141. 

Glaucoma cairi, Blgr. Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) vi. 1890, p. 92; Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1898, p. 65; 
Anderson, Herpet. of Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 106. 


Island of Rhoda, Cairo. Dr. Walter Innes. 
Ground-floor of a house, Cairo, 

In the alluvium, Luxor. 

Garden of the Luxor Hotel, amongst wet grass. 
Durrur. 


- PPPS 


Snout rounded; rostral broader than the nasal, prolonged backwards nearly to the 
level of the eyes; nasal semidivided ; nostril not far from the rostral ; first labial very 
small, less than one-fourth the size of the second labial; ocular nearly as large as 
the nasal, broadly entering the labial margin; one supraocular, slightly larger than 
the frontal ; five lower labials; diameter of the body about ,\5 of the total length; 
tail about fourteen times in the length; fourteen scales round the body. Reddish 
purple-brown above, paler below. 

Total length 193 millim., tail 14 millim.; greatest diameter 2-3 millim. 

I have met with this species myself only at Luxor. One specimen I captured 
among freshly watered grass in the garden of the hotel at Luxor, and the other 
was dug out of the banks of a canal that were being trimmed. The specimens 
from the island of Rhoda were found under stones close to the river, the ground below 


’ Bligr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 57. 


234 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


them being quite moist, while one was found on the ground-floor of a house in 
Cairo. 

At present it is known only from the foregoing localities. 

It is called by the natives ce =bahh. 


Glauconia cai, D. & B. x9. 


Measurements (in millim.) of G. cairi, D. & B. 


Total length. Tail. Diameter of body. Locality. 
182 18 2 Island of Rhoda, Cairo. 
110 7 15 Ground-floor of a house, Cairo. 
| 196 13:5 23 In the alluvium, Luxor. 
193 14 2:3 Wet grass in garden, Luxor Hotel. 
175 13 2 Durrur. 


This Glauconia is extremely active in its movements, and, when any attempt is made 
to capture it, it wriggles about with great activity, and, owing to the polished character 
of its scales, it can only be laid hold of with difficulty. 

Nothing is known regarding its food. 


GLAUCONIA CAIRI, 239 


The species described by Jan as Stenostoma fitzingeri ! is a closely allied form. I 
am indebted to Professor Andres, of the Milan Museum, for the information that the 
type is marked in Jan’s handwriting “ Is. Rhodus.” It was received from the Vienna 
Museum. In view of the close similarity of G. fitzingeri to G. cairi, may not the 
“Ts. Rhodus” of Jan be the island of the same name in the Nile at Cairo, and not, 
as has been supposed, the island of that name at the entrance to the Augean Sea ? 

Jan has described a Glauconia with a hooked beak, from Sennaar, under the 
name of Stenostoma macrorhynchum?. ‘There is a specimen (said to be from the 
‘Euphrates ?”) in the British Museum that agrees with Jan’s figure. 

In 1896, M. Jaquet® found near Biskra, on the confines of the Algerian Sahara, a 
Glauconia regarding which he consulted Professor Boettger, who suggested that it was 
allied to G. macrorhynchus. M. Jaquet, however, believing that it differed from that 
species, named it G. algeriensis. ‘The features of G. macrorhynchus are its prominently 
hooked snout, concave inferiorly ; the presence of a supraocular; the rostral prolonged 
backwards to the level of the eyes; a divided nasal; the ocular bordering the lip, with 
a very small labial in front of it and a larger labial behind it. These features are 
represented in M. Jaquet’s figure of G. algeriensis, with the exception of the third, 
as the rostral is portrayed as being continued slightly behind the level of the eyes; but 
this detail is rectified by the description, in which it is said that it is not prolonged 
beyond the level of the eyes. In the drawing the nasal is also represented as completely 
divided, but in the description it is stated ‘‘ La nasale n’est pas divisée.” The ocular 
in the sketch is shown to reach the labial margin and to have a labial before and 
behind it. The features of this species, so far as they can be made out from the figures 
and description, leave little doubt regarding its identity with G. macrorhynchus. 

On the coffin of Nesi-Pa-Ur Shef, X VIIIth Dynasty, a small serpentine red-coloured 
figure occurs that recalls the form and general appearance of a Glauconia. 


* Icon. Gén. 2 livr. Dec. 1861, pls. v. & vi. fig. 7; Arch. Zool. Anat. Fisiol. i. 1862, p. 189; Icon. Gén. 
texte, 1864, p. 37. 

* Icon. Gén. 1 livr. Dec. 1840, pls. v. & vi. fig. 12; Arch. Zool. Anat. Fisiol. i. 1862, p. 190; Icon. Gén. 
texte, Oct. 1864, p. 39; Blgr. Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) vi. 1890, p. 92; Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 61. 

* Bibhogr. Anat. (Nicolas), 1896, No. 2, pp. 79-80, 7 figs. 


236 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


BOIDAL!. 


ERYX. 
Eryz, part., Daud. Rept. vii. 1803, p. 251. 


Head not distinct from the neck; body cylindrical; tail short, thick, conical, or 
terminating in a sharp point. Upper surface of head scaly ; rostral large; eye small, 
pupil vertical. Body-scales small, smooth or keeled, numerous; subcaudals single. 
Maxillary and mandibular teeth decreasing in length from before backwards. 


ErRYX THEBAICUS, Reuss. (Plate XXXII. fig. 2.) 


? Anguis colubrinus, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, p. 320; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 390. 

? Anguis colubrinus, Gmel., Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. pt. 3, 1788, p. 1119 ; Schn. Hist. Amph. 1801, p. 338. 

? Eryx colubrinus, Daud. Hist. Rept. vii. 1803, p. 261. 

? Tortriz colubrina, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 83. 

Eryx de la Thébaide, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Descr. de P Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 141, pl. vi. fig. 1. 

Eryx thebaicus, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 134; Dum. & Bibr. vi. 1844, p. 468; Schleg. 
Bijdr. tot de Dierkunde, i. 1848, p. 2; Gray, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1849, p. 109; A. Dum. 
Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 214; Jan, Iconogr. Gén. 4 livr. 1864, pl. i. fig. 2, et texte, 
1865, p. 73; Westphal-Castel. Cat. Coll. Rept. 1869, p. 27; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1878, 
p- 205; Miiller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vii, 1882, p. 141 ; Mocquard, Mém. Cent. Soc. Philom. 
1888, p. 122*; Sclater, Snakes Ind. Mus. 1891, p. 6; Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M.1. 1898, p. 125; 
Proce. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 216; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 552; op. cit. 
(2) xvii. (xxxvii.) 1896-97, p. 20 et p. 279; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 106. 

Eryx scutata, Gray, Zool. Mise. 1842, p. 45. 

Eryx jaculus, var. sennaariensis, Jan, Iconogr. Gén. 4 livr. 1864, pl. ii. fig. 2. 

Erix thebaicus, Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. 1. 1876, p. 116. 

Eryx jaculus, var. surinamensis, Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. ed Anf. Mar Rosso, 1886, p. 38. 

Gongylophis thebaicus, Blgr. Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) ix. 1892, p. 76. 


1 The rock-snake, Python sebe, Gmel., which attains to 7 metres in length, was observed 100 years ago in 
Abyssinia by Bruce the travellert. In 18386 M. d’Arnaud obtained it on the Expedition sent by 
Mohammed Ali to discover the sources of the White Nile, but the locality where it was found has not been 
stated. Petherick § met with it to the south of Khartum. Boulenger bas recorded it from Somaliland |]. 
It is mentioned here, as it may possibly have a mors northerly extension than Khartum. 

+ Voy. Abys. v. 1790, p. 199. 

+ Dum. & Bibr. Erpét. Gén. vi. 1844, p. 406; A. Dum. Cat. Rept. Paris Mus. 1851, p. 210. 
§ Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1898, p. 87. 

|| Ann, Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) xvii. (xxxvil.) 1896, p. 20. 


‘wUEWY [2 aL 6d “cS “SOOIVATHL XAUY 
‘roxny ‘1-367 “TaIVO WINODAVT 


“TINXX ‘ld 4yd{3q jo sade 
Py in ( 


; a , 7” f v 
n 
. : ere ; 
cue ty 
i ‘ 
1 ; a 
w 4 
ah), 
" 
} T 
a 
iy 
} \ 
=f 
‘rn t : 3 
' 
Ls 
ef i 
‘ae AG 
y ye . 
7 i ! 
» : —e ke 
- Fj i 2 
7a i i 
1 
4 . 
1 
I m 
- - 
: i i 
, mee 
i) x 
] : : ' a 
+ i \ , 
; c 
a e P 
0 1. f 
i 5 
7 
: ; 
7 ¥ 
ace 7 
7 
Te ms 
; ‘ 
. 
j 
Ny 
, 


bo 
os 
a | 


ERYX THEBAICUS. 


1 3. Fayum. Major R. H. Brown, R.E., C.M.G. 
192. Telel Amarna. Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 


2gand2?. Karnak. 
336,38 2, and ljuv. Suakin. 
2¢. Tokar. 

29. Durrur. 

Scales on the upper surface of the head small and smooth; anterior nasals and 
internasals enlarged; rostral large, with an angular labial border. Eyes separated 
above by 10 to 12 rows of scales and surrounded by 12 to 15 scales; 5 or 6 scales 
between the eyes and the nasal, and generally 2, rarely 3, scales between the eyes 
and the upper labials; 11 to 15 upper labials, generally 13. Mental groove absent 
or tarely present. 43 to 52 scales round the body, smooth or feebly keeled 
anteriorly, but strongly carinate on the posterior third of the body, especially on the tail. 
171-197 ventrals, 1 anal, and 19 to 28 subcaudals. ‘ail short, conical, more or 
less pointed, and when perfect terminating in a conical scale. 

General colour yellowish, with large, irregular, more or less transverse, purplish- 
brown markings, frequently confluent on the mesial line of the back, and prolonged on 
to the sides, on which there are occasionally detached similarly-coloured spots, sepa- 
rated from each other by narrow irregular interspaces of the ground-colour. A dark, 
generally ill-defined, oblique, irregular line from the forehead through the eye. In 
others (Suakin) the upper surface is nearly uniform purplish brown, the pale inter- 
spaces being almost lost. Under surface yellowish, immaculate. 

It attains to 645 millim. in length, of which the tail measures 49 millim. 

The two species of this genus met with in Egypt and the Eastern Sudan are found 
on the margin of the desert and in dry situations in the alluvium. 

E. thebaicus is very common in Upper Egypt, but is much less so in Lower Egypt, 
and it does not appear to be found to the north of Cairo. It is the only species 
present at Suakin. It is widely distributed over Kast Africa, and, according to 
A. Duméril, extends westwards to Senegal ?. 

The members of this genus burrow in non-indurated sand. They are very gentle 
in their disposition and seldom attempt to bite. Their food consists of small 
lizards, such as Stenodactylus elegans, the remains of which I have removed from the 
stomach of E. thebaicus. After they have seized their prey they envelop it in their 
coils, much in the same way as does a python. 

According to Dr. Zander”, who with Dr. F. Werner®, has given an interesting 


* Professor Boettger, in his “ Die Reptilien und Amphibien von Marocco.—II.” (Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. xiii. 
1884, p. 104), included Z, thebaicus, Reuss, and quoted Giinther, apparently by mistake for Sclater, as his 
authority ; but the evidence adduced as a proof of its existence in that region of Africa is inconclusive. 

* Zool. Garten, xxxvi. 1895, p. 331. 

* Op. cit. xxxvii. 1896, p. 80. 


238 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


account of the habits of Erya jaculus in confinement, it would appear that the members 
of this genus fall a prey to Varanus griseus. 


I have heard two names applied by the natives of Egypt to this snake and to Erya 


jaculus. ‘The first, and that most commonly used, is ees = dassas. According to 


Ulfaz Udwujeh, 


Cw 


Ure = 


dassas, a noxious kind of serpent, and x io = dassasat, an 


earthworm living underground. The other term I have heard applied to Eryx jaculus 
I wrote down at the time as terayshay. I am also informed that it is known as 


Ss 


Ge 


Gio iss =haya daffana, the burrowing snake. All of these terms, however, require 


investigation by a competent Arabic scholar. 
In the accompanying table will be found a record of some of the variations met 


with in this species. 


Measurements (millim.) and other details of E. thebaicus, Reuss. 


Sex. 


Total 
length. 


Tail. 


Anal, | So 
1 | 24 
1 i) 
1 23 
ull. By 
i |) mA 
1 | 23 
1 .| 25 
| BB 
iL | 28 
1 | 24 
1 | 24 
1- | 26 
1 |. ane 
i | @ 
hy 88 
1) oe 
Lai) OP) 


Scales. 


Scales | Scales 

between| round 
eyes. | eyes, 
1 |) 18 
11 |14-15 
i |) 18 
11 /12-14 
i | eae 
11 | 12-14 
1) || 183 
1 || 183 
12 | 13 
12 | 18 
iil || ie 
1) |) 51 
|| 
1 || 583 
i) || ala 
1@ || ie 
tl |} 1 


Seales | Scales 
between | between 
eyes & | eyes & 
labials. | nasals. 

2 6 
2 5-6 
3 5-6 
3 6 
2 5 
2 5 
2 6 
2 5 
2 Bs) 
2 6 
2 5 
2 5 
2 5 
2 5 
2 5 
2 i) 
2 6 


Upper 
labials. 


Present. 


Mental 
groove, 


None. 


None. 


Locality. 


Fayum. 
Tel el Amarna. 


Karnak. 


Durrur. 


ERYX THEBAICUS. 239 


Analysis of foregoing Table. 


Largest male 475 millim. Largest female 645 millim. 


Highest number of ventrals 192 9 & 3. Karnak and Suakin. 
Fr 3 caudals 28 juv. Suakin, 
’ Lowest number of ventrals 179 3. Fayum. 
5 - caudals 21 9. Tel el Amarna. 
Range of ventrals 179-192=13. 
>,  caudals 21-28= 7. 
Highest number of scales 52 9. Tokar. 
Lowest ny ss 43 3 &juv. Karnak and Suakin. 
Range of scales 43-52= 9. 


6 males, 10 females, and 1 juy. 


When studying the descriptions given by Hasselquist and Linneus in the ‘Iter 
Palestinum’ of A. jaculus and A. colubrinus, one is struck by the fact that the 
particulars they give regarding the tails of these two species correspond to the features 
presented by the same parts of EH. jaculus and E. thebaicus, both of which occur 
in Lower Egypt. Although the descriptions of A. jaculus and A. colubrinus do not 
supply any more details by which the two can be recognized, we are not entitled to 
conclude that Hasselquist and Linneus were merely describing the same species twice 
over, but are rather led to believe that they had before them the two species found 
in Lower Egypt, the essential differences of which they had failed to express. I am 
therefore disposed to the supposition that the A. colubrinus represents the Eryx now 
known as E. thebaicus. 

As the type specimen of A. jaculus appears in Linneus’s Catalogue of the Museum of 
King Adolphus Frederick, at Drottningholm, I wrote to Professor F. A. Smitt, of the 
Stockholm Museum, asking him to be so good as let me know what had become of the 
King’s Museum. He informed me that when it was dispersed, in the beginning of the 
century, it was divided into two parts, one of which, for the most part the dried specimens, 
went to the University of Upsala, and the other to the Museum of the Academy of 
Sciences at Stockholm, at present known as the Royal Museum of Natural History, 
and he added that the latter Institution had had transferred to it the serpents from the 
voyage of Hasselquist, which had served as the type specimens of the Linnean species 
Coluber situla, C. jugularis, C. haje, and Anguis jaculus, and that, according to an old 
catalogue, it also possessed the Linnean type specimens of 73 other species of serpents. 
In view of the existence of these four Linnean types, said to be from Egypt, I deputed 
Mr. P. J. Smit, the artist who has illustrated this work, to proceed to Stockholm to 
make drawings of them and of any other types of Linnean species of Egyptian snakes 
that might possibly be at Stockholm or at Upsala. I had hoped also that he might 
perchance find the type of A. colubrinus, but unfortunately it no longer exists. 

A species allied to H. thebaicus, viz. E. muelleri, Blgr.1, has been described from 

* Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) ix. 1892, p. 74; Cat. Snakes B, M. i. 1893, p. 128, pl. v. fig. 2. 


240 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Sennaar. It has a pointed tail ending in a curved claw, but differs from the former in 
having only 5 scales between the eyes instead of 12-15, and in having a fewer number 
of scales round the body, viz. 41-45. Its dorsal spots are confluent into a zigzag band. 
The snake from Khartum, in the province of Sennaar, described as om-magneb in the 
Atlas (pl. xx. fig. 3) to Brocchi’s posthumous work !, may very possibly be this species. 
It is stated to have had 181 ventrals and 20 subcaudals, and the colour is said to have 
been “supra pallide flavescens, maculis magnis confluentibus brunneis (vel colore di 
marrone carico).” ‘The term applied to it is stated by Brocchi’s editor to be derived 
from ‘‘ genab,” which, in the idiom of Sennaar, means wicked. 

Herodotus? relates that there were sacred serpents at Thebes of small size, and 
with two horns growing out of the top of the head, and that they were perfectly 
harmless. They may have been specimens of the horned viper with their poison- 
fangs removed, and in this sense harmless; but it is also possible that the natives 
of those days, 460-454 B.c., may have practised a deception on the Greek historian 
similar to that to which the Swedish naturalist? was subjected in 1750-51 a.p., who 
also states that his horned snake was not poisonous. 


Eryx JacuLus, Hasselq. & Linn. (Plate XX XIII. & Plate XXXIII. A.) 


Anguis cerastes, Hasselquist, Acta Soc. Reg. Sc. Upsal. 1751, p. 28; Hasselq. & Linn. Iter 
Palest. 1757, p. 320; Linn. Syst. Nat. 1766, p. 391; Gmelin, Syst. Nat. Linn. i. pt. 3, 
1788, p. 1120; Schneid. Hist. Amph. 1801, p. 317. 

Anguis jaculus, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, p. 319; Linn. Mus. Adolph. Frid. ii. 1764, 
p. 48; Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p.391; Gmel. Syst. Nat. Linn. i..pt. 3, 1788, p. 1120; Schneider, 
Hist. Amph. 1801, p. 319. 

Anguis miliaris, Pallas, Reise, ii. 1771, p. 718; Zoogr. Ross.-As. ili, 1811, p. 54. 

Boa turcica, Oliv. Voy. Emp. Othom. i. 1801, p. 199, pl. 16. fig. 2. 

' Eryz cerastes, Daud. Hist. Rept. vii. 1803, p. 254. 

Eryz jaculus, Daud. Hist. Rept. vil. 1803, p. 257; Schneider, Denksch. Ak. Wissensch. Munchen, 
vii. 1821, p. 129; Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 192; Gray, Syn. Rept. Griffith An. Kined. ix. 
1831, p. 98; Bibr. et Bory de St. Vine. Expéd. Sc. Mor., Zool. Rept. 1833, p. 73; Reuss, Mus. 
Seuck. i. 1834, p. 133; part., Bonap. Mem. R. Ac. Sc. Torino, (2) ii. 1840, p. 428 ; Gray, Zool. 
Misc. 1842, p. 45; Dum. & Bibr. vi. 1844, p. 463 ; Schlegel, Bijdr. tot de Dierk. i. 1848, p. 2; 
Gray, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1849, p. 109; A. Duméril, Cat. Rept. Mus, Paris, 1851, p. 213; 
Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p.272; Strauch, Mém. Ac. Sc. St. Pétersb. (vii.) iv. no. 7, 1862, 
p- 51; Jan, Icongr. Gén. 4 livr. 1864, pl. ii. fig. 1, texte, 1865, p. 72; Westphal-Castel. Cat. 
Rept. 1869, p. 27; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) xxi. no. 4, 1873, p. 29; Schreiber, 
Herp. Europ. 1875, p. 812; Blanford, Eastern Persia, (Zool.) ii. 1876, p. 401; Gasco, Viage. 
in Egitto, 1876, p. 116; Boettger, Zeitschr. ges. Nat. (Giebel) xlix. 1877, p.287; Ber, Senck. 
Ges. 1879-80, p. 166; Radde’s Faun. Casp.-Geb. 1886, p. 73; Zool. Jahrb. iii. 1888, p. 938 ; 


* Giorn. Viagg. Egitto, &c. 1841-43. * il. cap. 74. * Iter Palest. p. 32. 


Pl. XXXII. 


yp 


go 


Reptiles of E 


BROX JACULUS. 


alro. 


yeh, C 


3, Abbasiy 


ERYX JACULUS. 241 


Boulenger, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1887, p.532; Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Zool. v. 1889, p. 101 ; 
Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 143; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1891, p. 631; Cat. Snakes B. M. 1. 1898, 
p. 125; Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mose. 1879, pt.2, p.44; Lortet, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, 
ili, 1883, p. 183; Tristram, Western Palestine, Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 146; Sclater, Snakes 
Ind. Mus. 1891, p. 6; Méhely, Zool. Anz. 1894, no. 442, p. 83; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. 
France, vii. 1894, p. 118; Werner, Zool. Garten, xxxvil. 1896, p. 85; Anderson, Herpet. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 70, 106. 

Eryz turcicus, Daud. Hist. Rept. vii. 1803, p. 267, pl. Ixxxv. fig. 2; Oppel, Ord. Fam. Gatt. Rept. 
1811, p. 57; Gray, Ann. Phil. new ser. x. 1825, p. 210; Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 982; Fitz. Neue 
Class. Rept. 1826, p. 54; Hichw. Zool. Spec. ii. 1831, p. 176; Faun. Casp.-Cauc. 1841, 
p- 99, pl. xvii. figs. 1-3; Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 182. 

Anguis helluo, Pallas, Zoogr. Ross.-As. ii. 1811, p. 54. 

~Eryz turcica, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 85; Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 513. 

Tortrix miliaris, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 82. 

Tortrix gracilis, Merr. op. cit. p. 83. 

Tortrix colubrina, Merv. op. cit. p. 83. 

Pseudoboa turcica, Schneider, Denksch. Ak. Wissensch. Miinchen, vii. 1821, p. 129. 

Boa tatarica, Licht. in Eversm. Reise, 1823, p. 146; Verz. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1823, p. 104. 

Eryx du Delta, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Descr. de PEgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 42, pl. vi. fig. 2. 

Eryx familiaris, Eichw. Zool. Spec. iii. 1831, p. 176. 

Eryx miliaris, Eichw. op. cit. p. 176. 

Tortrix eryx, Schlegel, Phys. Serp. pt. gén. 1837, p. 129; pt. descrip. p. 14, pl. i. figs. 11-15 
(exlus. syn.). 

Eriz turcica, Fiedler, Reise durch Griechl. i. 1840, p. 20, ii. 1841, p. 331 & p. 364. 

Eryz, sp.?, Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 205. 

Eryz jaculus, var. teherana, Jan, Iconogr. Gén. 1865, p. 73; de Filippi, Viag. Pers. 1865, p. 355, 

Eryz jaculus, var. miliaris, Boettger, Zool. Jahrb. iii. 1888, p. 938. 

1 3. Beltim. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel J. G. Rogers, D.S.0., C.M.G. 

1 3. Mahallet el Kebir. George Kent, Esq. 

1 ¢. Abbasiyeh. Major-General H. M. L. Rundle, D.S.O., C.M.G. 

2 2. Abu Roash. 

29. Gizeh. 

1g. Heluan. 

1g. Neighbourhood of Cairo. 

Scales on the upper surface of the head smooth, larger than in the previous species ; 
rostral large, with an angular labial border ; nasals, internasals, and some scales behind 
them much enlarged compared with E. thebaicus; 5 to 7 scales between the eyes 
above; 7 to 14 scales round the eyes (9-10 Egypt); 2 or 3 scales between the nasal 
and the eye; 1 or 2 scales between the eye and the upper labials; 10 to 14 upper 
labials (10 or 11 Egypt). Mental groove present. 40 to 51 scales round the body, 
anteriorly smooth, feebly keeled posteriorly. 165 to 200 ventrals, somewhat 
narrower than those of H. thebatcus; anal 1; subcaudals 15-34. Tail short, obtusely 
conical. 


QT 


242 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


General colour pale reddish brown or greyish brown, with numerous smaller and 
more broken-up spots than in H. thebaicus, of a dark brown or purplish-brown colour, 
irregular in their arrangement, more or less anastomosing, and somewhat transverse 
in their disposition, and smallest on the sides; a forwardly curved, dark brown 
band between the eyes anteriorly, a similar band from the eye to the angle of the 
mouth, and usually two short, narrow, parallel, similarly coloured lines on the nape. 


Underparts yellowish white. 


It attains to a total length of 695 millim., of which the tail measures 45 millim. 


Measurements (millim.) and other details of K. jaculus, Hasselg. & Linn. 


Sex| tempt. |" trate 28) aa 
2 | 530 | 45 |184] 1 | 22 
2 | 390 | 32 )193] 1 | 19 
@ | 390 | 23 |197) 1 | 18 
Juv.| 213 | 16 |194} 1 | 20 
Q | 495 | 41 |187) 1 | 24 
2 | 695 | 45 |199) 1 | 18 
@ | 612 | 46 |194) 1 
Q | 465 | 40/181) 1 | 25 
3 | 372 | 35 |187} 1 | 25 
@ | 455 | 34 |192| 1 | 22 
3 | 500 | 37 }200} 1 | 23 
8 185 23 
a 179 24 
9 180 27 
\Juy. 188 21 
3 183 21 
2 185 20 
Juy 172 20 
2 | ike sei | 


36 


| 7 


Scales | Scales | Scales | Scales 
Seale: [etmeen| Sand | opener | yoo U 
labials, | nasals. 
48 7 10 1 3 11 
48 a 11 1 3 11 
46 a 10 il 3 10 
45 a 10 1-2 3 10 
50 7 9 1 2 11 
46 U 10 1-2 3 10 
47 8 | 10 1 3 10 
45 a 9 1-2 3 11 
47 8 11 1 3 10 
43 7 10 2 3 11 
51 10 1 3 10 
45 7 13 4 13 
45 7 | 12-18 d 12 
49 8 |13-14 5 14 
47 9 13 4 12 
45 8 11 4 11 
43 9 | 12-11 4 |11-10 
45 9 10 3-4 | 10-11 
Eryx elegans, Gray. (Type.) 


geen aio all 


Mental 
groove. 


Present. 


” 


” 


Locality. 


{ Egypt(type),Stock- 


holm Museum. 


Beltim. 

Mahallet el Kebir. 
Abbasiyeh, Cairo. 
Abu Roash. 


” 


Heluan. 
{ Neighbourhood of 


Cairo. 


Askabad. 


” 


” 


Pul-i-Khatun, 
Transcaspia. 


isk, E. Turkestan. 


»” 0 


| Afghanistan. 


ERYX JACULUS. 243 


This species apparently does not extend into Middle Egypt. It is very plentiful 
in the delta proper and is the common species around Cairo. It is distributed over 
Northern Africa, from Lower Egypt to the confines of Morocco, if not to Morocco 
itself, to the Ionian Islands, South-east Europe, South-west and Central Asia. 

I have included in the foregoing table the type specimen of the species, and 7 
examples from the extreme eastern limit of its range, viz. from Turkestan. It will be 
seen that in that area the head-scales and upper labials are more numerous than in the 
typical form. 

In 7 out of 11 Egyptian examples of the species there are more than 190 ventrals, 
the highest number being 200, while only 4 have fewer than 190, the lowest number 
being 181. 

Among the 7 snakes in the table, and 5 others with more numerous head-scales 
from ‘Turkestan and the Afghanistan confines of Turkestan, not recorded, only one has 
more than 190 ventrals, but the number is high, viz. 200. Eight of them have more 
than 180 ventrals, and three have fewer, the lowest being 172. 

In examples of the typical form from beyond Egypt the ventrals vary from 165 to 
187. The lowest number, 165, has been met with in the two extremes of its distri- 
bution, viz., in the island of Corfu and on the western slopes of the Kopet Dagh, but 
in Persia 187 occurs. The snakes of the islands of Corfu and Xanthus are markedly 
distinct from the Egyptian specimens of this species in the relatively low number of 
their ventrals. In not one out of 9 examples are there more than 177 ventrals, while 
in a single specimen there are only 168. 

The subcaudals do not exceed 25 in any of the specimens of the typical form from 
Egypt, their range being from 18 to 25; and practically a nearly similar number 
prevails in Turkestan, where the subcaudals, as yet reported, vary from 19 to 27; but 
at Bala Murghab, in Afghanistan, the numbers rise to 33. In the typical form found in 
Xanthus and in Persia as many as 34 are present. 

I have also given in the table the details regarding Erya elegans, Gray, from 
Afghanistan, which is distinguished from £. jaculus only by its somewhat larger and 
less numerous body-scales, which do not exceed 36 in number, whereas the lowest 
number hitherto reached in £. jaculus is 40; but as Afghanistan becomes better known 
it seems probable, in view of the already known range of variability of the body-scales 
of this species, that individuals will be met with that will bridge over the gap between 
36 and 40. 

Hasselquist, in his original description of Anguis cerastes, considered it to be the 
Cerastes (horned viper) of Prosper Alpinus; but, so far from this being the case, 
his Cerastes was an Eryx with artificial horns, consisting of the claws of some bird 
introduced on to the head, over the orbits. During Duméril and Bibron’s day the Paris 
Museum possessed examples of this species (E. jaculus) the heads of which bore similar 
false horns firmly implanted and with the skin of the snake perfectly adhering to them. 

212 


244 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


I have never seen any Eryx so treated, but the deception of giving false horns to 
hornless specimens of Cerastes cornutus, so as to enhance their value, has come under 
my observation. What was supposed to be a fine horned example of that viper was 
forwarded to me alive in London; but the horns, instead of being its own, were the 
spines of the hedgehog of the delta, Hrinaceus auritus, firmly fixed into the head, one 
over each eye. 

The snake described as Anguis jaculus in the ‘ Iter Palestinum’ had 186 ventrals and 
23 subcaudals. In the 10th ed. of the Syst. Nat. (1758) Hasselquist is mentioned as 
having described it in the foregoing work; but the subcaudals are returned not as 23, 
but as 18. In the Mus. Adolph. Frid. Prod. ii. 1764, p. 48, and in the 12th ed. of the 
Syst. Nat., the ventrals and subcaudals are quoted as in the original description. The 
Stockholm Museum received two specimens of Anguis jaculus from the King’s 
Museum, and in Quensel’s MS. Catalogue they are entered as having come from it, and 
it is stated that they were the type specimens of the species; but in the ‘Iter Palzs- 
tinum,’ and also in the 12th edition of the ‘Systema Nature,’ only one snake is described, 
its ventrals and subcaudals being as stated above. The question arises, which of 
the two specimens is the type? One isa fully adult individual, with a total length of 
53 centim., and the other is half-grown, with a maximum length of 59 centim. ‘The 
former has 184 ventrals and 22 subcaudals, and the latter 195 ventrals and 18 subcaudals. 
The total length of the type specimen is given by Linneus in the Syst. Nat. as 2 feet, 
which may be taken as roughly representing the length of the larger of the two 
specimens; and as its ventrals and subcaudals practically agree with the numbers given 
in the ‘ Iter Palestinum’ and in the ‘Systema Nature,’ it may be accepted as the type 
of the species. ‘The circumstance that 18 subcaudals occur in the 10th edition of the 
Syst. Nat. suggests, in view of that number being present in the smaller specimen, 
that the latter was possibly then in existence and thus may have given rise to the 
difference in the notation of the subcaudals mentioned above. 

I have to express my great indebtedness to Professor Smitt for the many facilities 
he accorded to my artist on his visit to the Stockholm Museum for the purpose of 
figuring the few Linnean types still preserved there that have a direct bearing on the 
fauna of Egypt, for all the information he has so freely given me regarding them, and 
for his kind permission to reproduce in this work figures of the types of Angus jaculus ', 
Coluber situla, and C. jugularis, ‘The type of A. cerastes appears to have been lost. 


‘ It was not my intention to have figured the type of this well-known species unless the types of A. colubrinus 
and A. cerastes had been forthcoming; but as Mr. Smit had drawn the two specimens mentioned above 
together on one stone, I have reproduced his drawings as a plate rather than lose the result of his labours. 


Reptiles of Egypt. Pl. XXXIIIA. 


P.J.Smit del et hth. 


ERYX JACULUS. 
Fig. 1. Egypt. Hasselquist. Type. Stockholm Museum. Fig. 2. 


Egypt. Stockholm Museum. 


TROPIDONOTUS. 245 
: COLUBRID A. 
Series A. AGLYPHA. 
COLUBRINAZ’. 
TROPIDONOTUS. 


Tropidonotus, Kuhl, in Férussac, Bull. Se. Nat. ii. 1824, p. 81. 


Body cylindrical, elongate ; head flattened, distinct from the neck; tail elongate ; 
nostril between two plates; a loreal always present; head-shields regular; eye 
moderate, large, or rarely small; pupil round. Body-scales usually with apical pits, 
ovately lanceolate, imbricate, carinate, rarely smooth, in longitudinal series ; ventrals 
broad, rounded ; subcaudals divided ; anal entire or divided ; maxillary, palatine, and 
mandibular teeth present, the maxillary teeth short anteriorly, long posteriorly. 


Until within the last few years it was not known that the members of this genus 
were possessed of a poisonous secretion for the destruction of their prey ; but, so long 
ago as 1787, Fontana stated that they were immune to the bite of the viper and to 
the subcutaneous injection of its poison?. MM. Phisalix and Bertrand’ have fully 
verified this assertion, as they injected a small example of 7. natrix (50 cm. long) with 
0-005 gr. of dry venom of the viper, a dose capable of destroying 15 to 20 guinea-pigs, 
but which had no effect on the snake. They then set themselves to discover the cause 
of this immunity. After the explanation they had already given of the immunity 
enjoyed by the toad and viper to their own poisons, it seemed to them rational to 
search in the blood of Tropidonotus for toxic substances analogous to echidnine. 
They accordingly extracted antiseptically, under the influence of chloroform, blood 
from the hearts of 7. natriz and T. viperinus, two species closely allied to T. tessellatus, 
and injected very minute quantities either of the serum only or of the blood itself into 
the peritoneal cavity of guinea-pigs, with the invariable result that death ensued in 
little more than two hours, preceded by all the symptoms attending poisoning by the 
blood or venom of the viper. To ascertain the source of this poison in the blood of 
these snakes, they attempted to discover it by the successive inoculation of guinea- 
pigs with organic extracts of the principal viscera—liver, pancreas, spleen, thymus, 
thyroid body, and salivary glands. Injections of preparations of the first five of these 
organs into the peritoneal cavity had no evil effect. This, however, was not the 
case with the injection of the liquid extract of the salivary glands (superior 

* Blgr. Faun. Brit. Ind., Rept. 1890, p. 279. 

? It seems to be established that venomous serpents are protected against their own venom, but it does 
not appear that they are immune to the venom of snakes generically distinct from themselves. Mr. Thomson, 
Head-Keeper of the Zoological Gardens, informs me of two cases that illustrate this—the first in which Elaps 


Julvus killed Vipera berus and Lachesis atrox, and the second in which Bungarus fasciatus destroyed by its 
bite Diemenia nuchalis. 3 CO. R. Ac. Se. 1894, pp. 76-79. 


246 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


labial glands), as they, in every case, gave rise to symptoms of poisoning exactly the 
same as those produced by the blood of the two snakes, and were attended with 
the same result. MM. Phisalix and Bertrand’s experiments show that the toxic 
principles of the blood of these snakes is derived from the internal secretion of the 
superior labial glands, and that the physiological and chemical similarity of the 
principles to echidnine explains the immunity of these snakes to the venom of the 
viper. Their experiments also establish that these serpents are in no sense harmless 
in so far as their prey is concerned. 

The discovery of venom secreting-glands in the Aglypha and in Opisthoglypha 
fully confirms Mr. Boulenger’s conclusion that the taxonomic division of Snakes into 
poisonous and non-poisonous, which he was the first to abandon, was erroneous’. The 
late Prof. Cope accepted this decided advance on the old classification. 


TROPIDONOTUS TESSELLATUS, Laur. (Plate XXXIV. fig. 1.) 


Tropidonotus tessellatus, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 18932, p. 233, & iii. 1896, p. 605 ; Steindachner, 
Novara Exped., Reptiles, 1867, p. 66; Boettger, Zeitschr. ges. Natur. (Giebel), xlix. 1877, 
p. 287; Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1878-79, p. 64; S.B. Ak. Berl. 1888, p. 176; F. Miiller, 
Verh. naturf. Ges. Basel, vi. 1878, p. 602; Carruccio, Bull. Soc. Zool. Rom. i. 1892, pp. 42 
& 45; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlii. 1892, p. 855; Méhely, Zool. Anz. xvii. 
no. 442, 1894, p. 84; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Zool. Anat. Comp. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, 
p- 11; Ferreira, Jorn. Ac. Se. Lisboa, (2) iv. 1895, p. 42; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 
1896, p. 106. 


1 @. Beltim. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel J. G. Rogers, D.S.O., C.M.G. 


Rostral broader than high, visible on the upper surface of the head. Eye 
moderately large. Nasal generally partially divided, in contact with the first and 


' Mr. Boulenger (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 614) has shown that, so far as the jaws and teeth are concerned, 
a nearly complete filiation can be traced between the Colubride Aglyphe and the Proteroglyphe on the one 
hand, and between the former and the Viperide on the other hand. The following is the commentary 
of M. Phisalix confirming this opinion from a physiological standpoint :—“‘ La découverte des glandes 
yenimeuses suivie de |’étude du venin et du sang, chez les couleuvres, a apporté 4 cette maniére de voir 
Vappui dune vérification expérimentale. Le venin et le sang de la couleuvre possédent en effet les mémes 
propriétés physiologiques que le venin et Je sang de la vipére, d’une part, et d’autre part, le venin et le sang 
des Protéroglyphes (cobra, ophiophage) déterminent des symptdmes d’empoisonnement complétement 
différents de ceux de ’envenimation vipérique. Si l’on ajoute 4 cela que Je venin de couleuvre atténué par 
la chaleur ou inoculé 4 dose non mortelle devient un vaccin contre le venin de vipére et que les glandes 
labiales de la couleuvre, 4 l’égal de celles de la vipére, vaccinent aussi contre son venin, on sera conyaincu 
qwil y a non seulement homologie, mais encore analogie entre ces glandes, et que la parenté entre les 
colubrides aglyphodontes et les vipéridés peut ¢tre admise comme définitivement établie.”—C. 2. Soc. de 
Biol. sér. 10, iii. 1896, p. 965. 

* As Mr. Boulenger has given the synonymy of this species, I have not done more than add a few 
additional references. A similar course has been followed with some of the remaining species. 


Reptiles of Egypt. Pl. XXXIV. 


HO 
nena 
PSR SO) 

RY) 


J.Green del et hth . 


TROPIDONOTUS TESSELLATUS. Fig. 12, Beltim (Delta). 


OLicopon MELANocEPHALUs. Fig. 2, Merom, Syria. 
DaASYPELTIS SCABRA. Fig. 39, The Fayum. 


TARBOPHIS OBTUSUS. Fig. 49, Mahallet el Kebir. 
MACROPROTODON CUCULLATUS. Fig. 53, Abukir. 


os 
mee 


TROPIDONOTUS TESSELLATUS. 247 


second upper labials; internasals triangular, as long as broad, with a narrow, 
truncated, anterior edge, shorter than the nasals and little more than half the 
size of the prefrontals; mesial suture of the prefrontals about one half the length 
of the frontal, which equals the distance between its anterior border and the tip 
of the snout; lateral borders of the frontal nearly straight, its anterior breadth 
equal to about two-thirds of its length; parietals large, rounded posteriorly, about 
one-fourth longer than the frontal, their length equal to the conjoint mesial length 
of the frontal and prefrontals; loreal as long as deep or longer, in contact with two 
preoculars ; two, rarely one, or three preoculars, the upper excluded from contact with 
the frontal; occasionally a subocular ; two to four postoculars; temporals 1+2; eight 
upper labials, rarely seven; fourth, rarely third, or fourth and fifth below the eye ; 
anterior chin-shields the shorter, in contact generally with five or rarely four lower 
labials. 19 rows of strongly keeled scales around the body, with the exception of 
the outer row, which is feebly keeled or smooth. Ventrals 160-197; anal 1/1; 
subcaudals 48-86. 

Olive-grey or olive-brown, with small dark spots arranged in an irregularly quincunciate 
manner, with a dark, more or less defined A-mark behind the parietals. Under surface 
yellowish or reddish, spotted or checkered with black, or almost wholly black. 


Measurements (millim.) and other details of T. tessellatus, Laur. 


Relation 
Labials of pree- 
Total Ven- | Cau- Upper Sub- | Pre- Pp Post- | Tem- ; 
length. Tail. trals, | Anal. dals, | Scales. | jabials. enering oculars. | oculars. gonlers oculars.| porals. Nasals. | Loreal. | Locality. 
frontal. 


645 |115/168/1/1| 57} 19 8 4th 0 2 |B. Ex.) 4 142 1 1 | Beltim. 


This species, which was first recorded from Egypt by Peters ? in 1863, was obtained for 
me from Beltim, halfway between Damietta and Rosetta. Professor Boettger, in 1878-79, 
was probably correct in doubting its existence in Algeria, although he was aware that 
examples said to have come from Egypt were preserved in the Berlin and Vienna 
Museums. In 1892, however, it was again reported from Algeria by Dr. F. Werner. 

It is found in Palestine and Syria, throughout South-western and Central Asia, South, 
Eastern, Southern, and Middle Europe, and seemingly along the North-African coast. 

It is very aquatic in its habits, and lives chiefly on fish and batrachians. 

Dr. Innes informs me that it is known to the natives of the delta as sly 
=azroud beiti, but I doubt its being found in houses, 


Saye 


? B. Ex.=broadly excluded. 
* Mon. Berl. Ak. 1863, p. 370.. I am indebted to Mr. Boulenger for this obscure reference. 


248 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


ZAMENIS. 
Zamenis, Wagler (part.), Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 188. 


Head. distinct from the neck; body cylindrical, elongate. Hye of moderate size; 
pupil round; generally one or more suboculars, two preoculars and two postoculars, 
these plates occasionally form a semicircle to the lower half of the eye. Body-scales 
with apical pits, smooth or slightly keeled; ventrals rounded, or with an indistinct 
lateral keel; anal generally divided. Subcaudals two-rowed. Maxillary teeth increase in 
length posteriorly in continuous series, or the last two separated by a short interspace 
from the others. Mandibular teeth either of equal length, or the anterior teeth some- 
what enlarged. 


Dr. Alcock and Mr. Finn !, of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, have recently recorded 
the presence of the subocular “ poison-gland” in three species of this genus, viz. 
Z. diadema, Z. karelinit, and Z. rhodorhachis. In the first it is “very large” and in 
the last “large,” while in the second it is twice the length of the eye. The natives 
(Afghan-Baluch tribes), according to Dr. Maynard, whose notes are quoted by 
Dr Alcock and Mr. Finn, regard Z. rhodorhachis as poisonous, but he adds that the 
snakes he met with were not fierce. 

The adipose bodies of the species of this genus occurring in Egypt are greatly 
developed in individuals caught between November and April. 


ZAMENIS GEMONENSIS, Laur. (Plate XX XVII. A. fig. 1.) 


? Coluber jugularis, Linn. Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 255; Mus. Adolph. Frid. Prod. ii. 1764, p. 45; Syst. 
Nat. i. 1766, p. 387. 

Natriz gemonensis, Laur. Syn. Rept. i. 1768, p. 76. 

Zamenis gemonensis, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 395. 


Var. asiaNA, Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, p. 161. 


Body moderately slender; snout obtuse; rostral nearly as high as broad, the portion 
visible from above equal to about one-fourth of the distance between the tip of the 
snout and the frontal; internasals slightly longer than broad, or as broad as long, 
rounded anteriorly; prefrontals slightly longer than the internasals; frontal as long 
as the median suture of the parietals, longer than the distance between its anterior 
border and the tip of the snout, narrower or slightly exceeding the breadth of the 


* Journ. As. Soc, Beng. (new ser.) Ixy. pt. ii. no. 4, 1896 (1897), p. 63. 


ZAMENIS GEMONENSIS. 249 


supraocular, its anterior breadth equal to about two-thirds of its length; parietals 
equal in length to the frontal and about two-thirds of the prefrontal ; loreal longer 
than high; one preocular (rarely two), generally broadly excluded from contact 
with the frontal ; one small subocular; two or three postoculars; eight upper labials, 
the fourth and fifth entering the orbit; temporals 2+2 and 2+3,; anterior chin- 
shields rather large, in contact with five, or occasionally only four, lower labials ; 
second pair of chin-shields separated by small scales. 17-19 rows of smooth scales. 
190-250 ventrals, with a very feeble angular ridge; anal 1/1; subcaudals 87-130. 
From Mr. Smit’s description of the Stockholm specimen it is nearly uniformly coloured 
dark above with a very few light spots here and there, but covered with a fine, almost 
invisible white dotting. 

The species, according to Mr. Boulenger, attains to 1790 millim. in length, of 
which the tail forms 500 millim. 

This variety is distributed throughout Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Rhodes, and 
Cyprus. 

Linneus, in the 10th ed. of the Syst. Nat., in his account of the contents of the 
Museum Adolphus Frederick, and in the 12th ed. of the first-named work, described a 
snake under the name of Coluber jugularis, and gave Egypt as the country whence it 
came, and Hasselquist as the collector. As has been already stated, what is believed 
to be the type specimen of this species is preserved in the Museum of Stockholm. 
The bottle in which it is contained has the original Linnean label still attached to it, 
and, besides, the specimen is entered in Quensel’s Catalogue (1802), and also in 
Swartz’s (1808), under the name of C. jugularis, and in them it is further stated that 
it is the type of the species, and that it originally belonged to the Museum of King 
Adolphus Frederick. 

Linneus described his type specimen as having 195 ventrals and 102 subcaudals, 
but, in the professed type, Mr. P. J. Smit assures me that he counted 203 ventrals and 
104 subcaudals. ‘This difference of 8 ventral shields is considerable, and it is note- 
worthy that there is nothing like the same discrepancy between the subcaudals, which 
are much more difficult to count. To admit of the acceptance of this specimen as the 
type of C. jugularis would be to attribute an error of notation to Linneus. ‘The fact, 
however, that the specimens from the King’s Museum that were transferred to 
Stockholm have been the subjects of many catalogues from Quensel’s time onwards 
renders it possible that a specimen or a label may have become wrongly placed. As 
the specimen itself has no label attached to it, such an error may have happened, and, 
moreover, the custom appears to have been to tie the labels to the bottles only with 
thread. Anyway, the discrepancy between the ventrals does not admit of the 
unhesitating acceptance of the specimen’s claim to be the actual type of C. jugularis ; 
but whatever view may be taken of this, it is unquestionably an example of the snake 
generally known as Zamenis viridiflavus, as was pointed out to me by Prof. Smitt at 

2K 


250 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


the time I first asked him regarding the Linnean types, and identified by Mr. Boulenger 
with the Natrix gemonensis, Laurenti. 

Mr. P. J. Smit’s notes on the specimen in question mention that the anal is divided, 
that there are 19 rows of scales round the body, and that the specimen has a total 
length of 132 cm., of which the tail forms 57 cm. 

As Mr. Smit made a figure of the specimen, I have reproduced his drawing on the 
above mentioned plate. 

The interest that C. jugularis had to me was the fact that it was one of Hasselquist’s 
specimens, and that it was ascribed by Linneus to Egypt. No other museum, so far 
as is known, contains a single example of this species from Egypt, and, moreover, I 
have met with only one other reference in literature to its presence in Egypt, namely, 
by Duméril and Bibron', who mention that they had seen in Paris a living specimen 
that had been collected in Egypt, and that it was of a beautiful ebony-black colour. 


ZAMENIS DAHL, Fitz. (Fig. 10 text.) 
Couleuvre, Savigny, Descr. de Egypte, Rept. Suppl. pl. iv. (1818) figs. 41-43. 
Tyria dahlii, Fitz. N. C. Rept. 1826, p. 60. 
Zamenis dahlii, Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 692; Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 397. 


Body long, slender ; head rather narrow ; snout obtuse; rostral nearly as high as 
broad, little visible on the upper surface of the head; internasals shorter than the 
prefrontals, equal or nearly equal to them in length ; frontal longer than the distance 
between its outer border and the tip of the snout, slightly narrower or somewhat 
broader than the supraocular, its anterior breadth equal to about two-thirds of its 
length ; parietals considerably longer than the frontal, obliquely truncated posteriorly ; 
loreal oblong; one preocular, generally in contact with the frontal; one subocular ; 
two postoculars; temporals 1+2, 14-3, 2-2 or 243; eight upper labials, the fourth 
and fifth entering the orbit, occasionally the fifth and sixth; anterior pair of chin- 
shields in contact with four or five lower labials, posterior pair the longer, separated 
by small scales. 19 rows of smooth narrow scales across the body, each scale with an 
apical pit. 205-218 markedly angulate ventrals; anal 1/1; subcaudals 98-152. 

Colour greyish or olive-brown above, more or less tinged with reddish; on the sides 
of the neck and trunk, more especially anteriorly, with sparsely distributed rather large 
dark brown or nearly black spots, margined with whitish or pale yellow ; upper surface 
of the head olive-brown, the nape of the neck with a dark collar broadly margined 
with yellowish, the anterior pale border being continuous with the pale yellowish area 


| Erpét. Gén. vii. 1854, p. 688. 


ZAMENIS DAHLIL. 251 


of the upper labials, post- and preoculars. Under surface pale yellowish without 
spots. 

It attains to a length of 1080 millim., of which the tail forms 340 millim. 

In the great French work on Egypt the snake represented on Suppl. pl. iv. (1813) 
figs. 41-43 is unquestionably a gocd figure of this species, which is not uncommon in 
Southern Europe, east of the Adriatic, and in South-western Asia. It has frequently 
been recorded from Syria and Palestine, but beyond the fact that the following unnamed 
figure occurs in the ‘ Descr. de ’Kgypte,’ leading to the supposition that the species is 


Fig. 10. 


Zamenis dahlii, Fitz. 


Reproduced from Plate iv. fig. 4 (1813) of Reptiles (Supplement), Descr. de Egypte. 


present in Egypt, not a single specimen, so far as I have been able to ascertain, has 
ever been recorded from that country before or since the day, in 1801, when Savigny 
and E. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire left the harbour of Alexandria for France. I have made 
very careful inquiries after it, but with no success. It may be very rare, or it may be 
confined to a limited area of N.E. Egypt, and thus have escaped observation ; but as 
four out of the six species of snakes figured on Suppl. pl. iv. have been found in 
Egypt, there is a reasonable expectation that it also will be rediscovered, and in order 
to facilitate its identification I have reproduced above a sufficient portion of Savigny’s 
drawing to admit of the species being recognized by anyone who may be fortunate 
enough to find it. 


i) 
on 
bo 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


ZAMENIS RHODORHACHIS, Jan. (Plate XXXV.) 


Zamenis rhodorhachis, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 398; op. cit. iil. 1896, p. 623; Ann. 
Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xvi. (xxxvi.) 5 Giugno, 1896, p. 553; op. cit. (2) xvii. (xxxvii.) 7 Gennaio, 
1897, p. 279; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlv. 1895, p. 17; Anderson, Herpet. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 51, 106; Alcock & Finn, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, (new ser.) 
Ixy. 1896 (1897), pt. ii. p. 563. 

Zamenis ventrimaculatus, non Gray, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 489. 

Zamenis ladaccensis, Sclater, Cat. Snakes Ind. Mus. 1891, p. 27; Boettger, Ber. Offenb. Ver. 
XX1X.-Xxxil. 1892, p. 62. 

Zamenis ladaccensis, var. subnigra, Boettger, Zool. Anz. 1893, no. 416, p. 118; no. 417, p. 132. 

Zamenis rhodorhachis, Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 654. 


12. Beni Hassan. 
ljuv. Tel el Amarna. 


Body elongate and slender; head and snout rather narrow and pointed; the depth 
of the rostral nearly equais its breadth, the portion visible from above is equivalent 
to about a third of the interval between the rostral and the frontal; internasals as 
long as, or nearly as long as, the prefrontals, quadrangular, with the anterior border 
more or less rounded or anteriorly and externally divergent; prefrontals distinct ; 
frontal considerably longer than its distance from the end of the snout, nearly twice as 
long as broad anteriorly, sides deeply concave, in contact more or less with the pre- 
ocular; parietals moderately long, their extreme length exceeding the conjoint length 
of the frontal and preefrontals ; supraocular one-third narrower than the anterior border 
of the frontal; loreal generally longer than deep ; one preocular; one subocular, rarely 
absent; two postoculars; temporals 242 or 2+3; nine upper labials (rarely and 
asymmetrically 10), the fifth and sixth, or rarely the fourth, fifth, and sixth entering 
the orbit. Scales smooth, in 19 rows across the body. Ventrals 215-262, feebly 
angulate; anal1/1; subcaudals 113-154. 

Olive-grey, with about 95 dark, narrow, closely set cross-bars on the anterior 
two-thirds of the trunk, the posterior third and the tail uniform olive-grey. Upper 
surface of the head with obscure cross markings, occasionally a dark temporal band 
and a dark spot below the eye; the pre- and postoculars yellow or orange-yellow, and 
an area before the dark temporal band of the same colour; the angles of the ventrals 
generally with a dusky spot. Underparts white or pale yellowish white. In some 
(Persian specimens) there is a pinkish vertebral line. 

It attains to a length of 1167 millim., of which the tail forms 297 millim. 

The two specimens here recorded were obtained on the margin of the desert in the 
localities mentioned. 

It has a wide distribution. Besides Egypt, it has been found in Somaliland, and outside 
of Africa it extends to Arabia, Syria, Persia, Transcaspia, and North-western India. 


Pl. XXXV. 


gypt. 


my 
v} 


Reptiles of I 


ZAMENIS RHODORHACHIS. 


?, Beni Hassan. 


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: - . My i " 
7 a , 
f Pp f 
i 
' A i 
i 
i, i 
ty 
' 
‘ 
» 
° ; 1 
fa 
- 
\ 
Te 
‘ o 
‘ 
* 
i E ° 


ZAMENIS RHODORHACHIS. 


2653 


Wilkinson in his MS. notes mentions a long thin harmless snake under the name of 
the flyer (?Arabic name “ Jear” or “‘Jeier’’), on account of its habit ‘‘ of bounding from 
rocks or along the sand of the desert to the distance of 12 to 15 feet or more”! This 
Zamenis and the next species are distinguished by great rapidity of movement and by 
the wonderful way they pass from stone to stone in the desert, so that it has occurred 
to me that one or other of them might be the snake Wilkinson had in view; but the 
distances he gives were doubtless derived from native sources and grossly exaggerated. 

In the following table I have included some specimens from the Hadramut, Aden, and 


Somaliland, as the numbers of ventrals are in remarkable contrast to those found in the 


two Egyptian specimens. It is noteworthy that in the Somaliland snakes the prevailing 
numbers are low, like those found on the opposite coast of the Straits of Aden. 


Measurements (millim.) and some details of Z. rhodorhachis, Jan." 


@ | 798 | 218] 226] 1/1 | 120 
Tuy, 540 | 155 | 226] 1/1 |133 
Juy.| 430 | 120] 222] 1/1 | 128 
Juv.| 348 | 91) 229) 1/1 | 197 
213] 1/1| 118 


19 


19 
19 
19 
19 
19 


Cau- |, Upper 
Anal. gals, |Scales.| jabials. 


Ge) fe) WW) & 


Labials 


orbit. 


5 & 6 
4,5, 6 
5&6 
5&6 
5&6 
5&6 
5&6 


5&6 


5&6 
5&6 
5&6 
5&6 


: Sub- 
entering} oeylars. | oculars. preoculars 
to 


1 


Pre- 


Relation 
of 


frontal. 


B. C. 
B.C. 
C. 


Be Ww & 
Qo Qa 2 2 


om © MW HW WB 


Postoculars. 


lo 


bo 


Loreal 


Locality. 
Beni Hassan. 
Tel el Amarna. 


Hadramut. 


” 


Zaila, Somali- 
land. 

Ogaden 
(Boettger). 


1 Explanation of abbreviations :—L.=Left; R.=Right; B. C.=Broadly in contact; C.=In contact ; 


0=Not in contact. 


254 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Below I have also given an analysis of the numbers of the ventrals and subcaudals 
that have been recorded, by Mr. Boulenger and others, from Asiatic as well as 
Egyptian specimens. The materials, however, are so limited that little is learned 
from them; but, at the same time, it will be observed that the lowest number of 
ventrals in the Egyptian specimens is greater than the maximum number from any 
other localities, with the exception of Midian and the Sinaitic Peninsula, and that their 
highest number exceeds by 16 the greatest number yet recorded from any other area 
besides North-western Arabia. The numerical contrast presented by the Egyptian and 
Somaliland snakes is very striking, as their respective lowest numbers are 248 
and 213, and their highest 262 and 229. 


An Analysis of the numbers of ventrals and subcaudals of Z. rhodorhachis, Jan, 
recorded from the areas indicated below. 


Ventrals. Subcaudals. Ventrals. Subcaudals. 


ie North-westelndiane eee nic 243-- 2 135 

BO, wv IEG ps oocgoccsd0cnG1odc00D 232-246 133-145 | 225-246 129-145 
2. Galoit iseve steele sere rvs exca excoeren ere ste 225-244 129-131 

29. Ai Dara, W. slope of Kopet Dagh .. 223-244 113- ? 

TON JVMOMMIN co oagaonco00Gac00090 215 135 214-244 113-137 
Al Gin LO, Collage JRSWIO, o6o00n50000000 214-228 125-137 

73,79,&/7juv. East and South Arabia. . eran sea 220-239 114-140 
1h. O)s ¥ WeadiSeavel: ference kee cane Lae 225 124 

2. N. Arabia, Midian, and Tor .......... Rote ryote 251-252 139= ? 
DO 5 il, IEG SopoodooeDocccGdas0000 Beech steecs 248-262 140-154 
DB, Boayplilil soonsooousccoouodobacoce iste etree 213-229 118-127 


Besides Z. rhodorhachis three other species of this genus are present in Somaliland, 
viz. Z. brevis, Blgr.!, Z. somalicus®, Blgr., and Z. smithi®, Blgr., the last being also 
present in Gallaland. 


ZAMENIS ROGERSI, Anderson. (Plate XXXVI.) 


Zamenis rogersi, Anderson, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, vol. xii. Dec. 1893, p. 439; Herpet. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 107; Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, p. 623. 


1 g. Above Wadi Hoaf, near Heluan. Mrs. Anderson. 

1¢.  Beltim, sea-face of the delta. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel J. G. Rogers, D.S.O., C.M.G. 
1 ? andl juv. Shaluf, on the Freshwater Canal, near Suez. 

1 9. Marsa Matru. 


* Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xv. (xxxv.) 1895, 30 Marzo, p. 13, pl. ili. fig. 3. 
* Op. cit. (2) xvii. (xxxvii.) 18 Noy. 1896, p. 11. 
* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 536, pl. xxx. fig. 2. 


‘ey “wpe * f 
ISMADOU SINANVZ 


“TAXXX. ‘Id 
4ydk3q jo sopudey 


ZAMENIS ROGERSI. 255 


Body elongate, somewhat shorter and stouter than Z. rhodorhachis ; head also slightly 
broader and snout less pointed; depth of the rostral equals about half of the 
breadth, the portion visible from above equals about one-third of the interval between 
the rostral and the frontal; internasals as long or nearly as long as the prefrontals, 
quadrangular, the anterior borders more or less rounded, or anteriorly and externally 
divergent; prefrontals sometimes confluent; frontal considerably longer than its 
distance from the end of the snout, its anterior breadth about three-quarters of its 
length, sides deeply concave, in contact slightly with the preocular; parietals rather 
broad, their extreme length nearly equalling the conjoint frontal and preefrontals ; supra- 
ocular one-third narrower than the anterior border of the frontal; loreal longer than 
deep ; one preocular; one subocular, rarely two; two postoculars ; temporals 2+-2, 
rarely 23; nine upper labials, the fifth and sixth entering the orbit, occasionally only 
the sixth. Scales smooth, in 19 rows. Ventrals 197-21, feebly angulate; anal 1/1; 
subcaudals 95-106. 

General colour greyish or yellowish; a longitudinal dorsal series of about 60, olive- 
brown, rounded spots along the two anterior thirds of the body, more or less confluent 
posteriorly in some, alternating in lateral series of smaller spots close to the angles of 
‘the ventrals; the posterior third of the body and the tail uniform yellowish. Head 
uniform brown above, with a dark oblique temporal band and another behind it, a 
black spot below the eye and another behind the nostril; the areas between these 
four dusky markings are more or less bright yellowish orange. Under surface 
yellowish white. A dusky spot occupies the angle of every third or fourth ventral, 
and there are occasionally a few obscure small dusky spots between the angles of the 
ventrals and their keels. 

It attains to a length of 845 millim., of which the tail forms 220 millim. 

It has hitherto been recorded only from Lower Egypt, and from the most western 
part of its sea-board, viz. Marsa Matru. 


Measurements (millim.) and some details of Z. rogersi, Anders. 


J] Bish tan | Nore | Anat /Cet-] ses, | Uprer boteng| Sub | Pew: praocuan) Post | Tons oral] Locality. 
| 

le | aw | wohesiam| esl 1) | & [beG) 1) wo) sac | 2 |e |e aye 
5 | 6s lowlnrlanins! 10 | © | @ ) o | a | we | a one) a Bela, 
© || 565 |205\\201/1/1| 96] 19 | 9 |5e@6| 1 | 1 | Be | 2/242] 1 |Shalut | 
Tas] 298 non |anol| ya} oz] 2 | © [eee x2 | 2 | Be | o lose ay | 
a e901 so 215 i 1068) 19) 9) laeel| 1 | 7 | Bc | 2 |242)| 1 |Morse | 
Meaty 


256 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


This snake is closely allied to Z. rhodorhachis, Jan, but differs from it in its body being 
less slender, the number of ventral and subcaudal shields falling below the range that 
occurs in that species, in which the former shields vary from 213 to 262 and the latter 
from 113 to 154, whereas in Z. rogersi the ventrals, in five specimens, range only from 
197 to 215, and the subcaudals from 95 to 106. It isalso distinguished from Z. rhodo- 
rhachis, Jan, by the rostral shield being considerably broader than high, as its height 
only equals about one-half of its breadth; whereas in Z. rhodorhachis the height of 
the rostral equals two-thirds of its breadth or even more. The frontal is considerably 
longer than the interval between its anterior margin and the end of the snout. In the 
other details of its head-shields, with the exception of the prefrontals, which are 
occasionally united into one shield (two specimens from Shaluf, near Suez), and in 
the number of scales round the body it resembles Z. rhodorhachis. 


ZAMENIS FLORULENTUS, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. (Plate XX XVII. fig. 1.) 


? Coluber guttatus, Forskal, Descr. Anim. 1775, p. 14. 

? Coluber cahirinus, Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1788, p. 1115. 

Couleuvre, Savigny, Descr. de ’Egypte, Suppl. Rept. pl. iv. (1813) figs. 31-33. 

La Couleuvre & Bouquets, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Descr. de ? Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ?1827, p. 146, pl. viii. 
figs. 2 & 2. 

Coluber florulentus, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Descr. de ’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 151; Schlegel, 
Phys. Serp. ii. 1837, p. 166. 

Zamenis florulentus, Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 693 ; Jan, Icon. Gén. livr. 48, 1876, pl. vi. fig. 4; 
Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878, p. 95; F. Miller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, 
vi. 1878, p. 599; op. cit. vii. 1882, p. 145; Reichenow, S.B. Ges. nat. Freunde Berl. 1883, 
p. 149; Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 402; op. cit. ii. 1896, p. 624; Anderson, 
Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 107; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom. Zool. vy. 1896, p. 35. 

Zamenis ventrimaculatus, part., Ginther, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 105. 

Zamenis dahlii, part., Giinther, op. cit. p. 107. 

Tylanthera florulenta, Cope, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. xviii. new ser. 1896, p. 205. 


iQ, Beltim. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel J. G. Rogers, D.S.O., C.M.G. 
iM go Mandara. 

2g and492. Abu Roash. 

1 g andl juv. Gizeh. 

Ie Fayum. 

2¢and2juv. Minia. 

ll Tel el Amarna. 

1 juv. Assiut. 

26 and 2juv. Luxor. 

1 juv. Karnak. 

IQ West bank of Nile, Luxor. 


Reptiles of Egypt: Pl. XXXVI. 


every 


J.Green del et hth 


ZAMENIS FLORULENTUS. Fig. 1 ¢, Abu Roash. ZAMENIS RAVERGIERI, var., NUMMIFER. Fig. 2 ¢, Beltim (Delta). 
LYTORHYNCHUS DIADEMA. Fig. 3 ¢, Gizeh. CG@LOPELTIS. MONSPESSULANA. Fig. 4¢, Maryut District; Fig. 5 ¢, var., Alexandria. 


Reptiles of Egypt. Pl. XXXVIIa. 


EJ.Smit del. etlith. 


COLUBER JUGULARIS, Linn. Fig. 1. Type, Hasselquist, Stockholm Museum. 
COLUBER SITULA. Linn, Fig. 2. Type, Hasselquist, Stockholm Museum. 


ZAMENIS FLORULENTUS. 


bo 
or 
=~T 


] 2 and 1juv. Assuan. 
1 g andl 9. Wadi Halfa. 
1 juy. Tokar. 


Body somewhat slender and elongate; head rather long; snout long, obtusely 
rounded; eye moderately large; rostral considerably broader than high, the part 
visible from above equal to one-fourth or more of the interval between the rostral and 
the frontal; internasals nearly as broad as long, triangular, truncated anteriorly, forming 
a more or less transverse suture with the prefrontals; prafrontals longer than the 
internasals ; frontal as long or slightly longer than the distance between its anterior 
border and the tip of the snout, its anterior breadth equals about two-thirds of its length, 
its anterior breadth much broader than a supraocular ; parietals shorter than the conjoint 
lengths of the frontal and preefrontals, obliquely truncated posteriorly ; loreal longer 
than deep; one preocular, in contact with the frontal, rarely two asymmetrically ; 
one subocular, exceptionally two or three; two postoculars, exceptionally three; 
nine upper labials, rarely ten, generally the fifth and sixth entering the orbital 
margin, occasionally the sixth and seventh; temporals 2+2 or 2+3; four lower 
labials, usually in contact with the first chin-shield; posterior chin-shields as long or 
longer than the anterior pair, very narrow, and separated by scales. 21 rows of 
smooth scales, exceptionally 25. Ventrals 201-228, laterally angulate ; anal 1/1; 
subcaudals $2-104. 

Olive-brown above, nape and anterior part of the body with narrow transverse dark 
bands prolonged downwards on to the sides, not unfrequently more or less interrupted 
in the mesial line, and anteriorly separated from each other by interspaces about half 
their antero-posterior breadth ; further back they assume the character of brown rounded 
spots arranged quincuncially, but frequently the last fourth of the snake is uniform 
olive. Upper surface of the head generally with a series of dark transverse markings, 
sometimes edged with white, a prominent one across the anterior part of the parietals 
to the temporal region, from which a dark irregular marking passes to the angle of the 
mouth ; a dark band below the eye, more or less developed; centres of labials dusky. 
Under surface yellowish or coral-red, each ventral generally with a black spot on its 
angle, these spots becoming feeble on the hinder part of the body. Sometimes the 
entire upper surface of the snake is nearly uniform brown. 

It attains to a length of 1090 millim., of which the tail forms 220 millim. 

This is probably the most common serpent in Egypt. It is found on the margin of 
the desert and on the alluvium, and in and about villages, entering the houses. 

It extends along the Nile valley from the sea-face of the delta to Sennaar. It 
has been recorded from Cyrenaica in the west. Parenti and Picaglia mention its 
occurrence on the coast of the Red Sea, at Aden!; but the correctness of their identifi- 


cation seems doubtful. 
Rett. ed Anf. Mar Rosso, 1886, p. 45. 


258 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements (millim.) and other details of Z. florulentus, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. 


| 
aR Relation 
Total |,, ., | Ven- Cau- U abials | Gub- | Pre- | Of pre-| Post- | Tem- \ 
Sex length. | Tail- | trats,| Anal: ait Scales, latins. gerne Geilars, sults: coulars ecularel parent Locality. 
; frontal. 
@ | 930 |217|217)1/1| 99) 21 | 22 Tete 1 1 |B.c.] 2 | 242 | Beltim. 
3 | 1028 215) 1/1 21 9 5, 6 1 Ht 45 2 2+2 | Mandara. 
i Pale i L. 242 
3 | 759 |185)213}1/1} 93] 21 9 R5,6 1 il a 2 |R.243| Abu Roash. 
” D) / L.9 | L.5,6 2 
| 917 |149)210/1/1 Ea Ree alee a 1 i 2 +2 i. 
9 | 707 }160|221]1/1| 92] 21 ® | &6| i 1 a || & 242 6s 
Q| 710 |180|217/1/1} 82] 21 9 | Rel I 1 b 2 | 242 % 
Ou 733)190)|/2v6)| 1/15 ee eaten ee BOG 1 1 is 2 | 2-42 i 
74 | 202 | 229 D) L. 10 L. 0 L.3 1 D) 949 
se) is eal R.9 | R6 | RB | RQ % u i 
g | 854 |200/209]1/1| 88) 21 ONS, Cole lipemia, 2 | 242 | Gizeh. 
Juv.| 325 | 72|/220/1/1| 88] 21 ) | Bo] 2 1 * 2 | 2a || 
? | 610 |136)209/1/1] 92} 21 9 5, 6 il 1 3 2 | 2+2 | Fayum. 
rs) 206| 1/1 21 ) | &B] i 1 a 2 | 242 | Minia. 
g | 718 |180}205|)1/1| 93] 21 9 | BG] il 1 3 By ee) 
Juv.) 368 | 85|206) 1/1} 98] 21 © | 8&6} i 1 " 2) [PSE 
Juv.| 335 | 80/208/1/1}101] 21 ® | &6] a 1 ‘ Zn te| 
2 |) Teo (2lveml || 65] at | O |e] a | 2 | 4 | @ iReesiietal 
i, UG Amarna. 
Juy.| 305 214] 1/1 23 10 | 5,6 1 1 Z 2 le pie Assiut. 
@ | 613 |127/212)1/1| 94} 21 9 5, 6 1 1 p) oD Luxor. 
Q | 730 |180)212|1/1| 97} 21 9 | Be] i il 8 Q | 9p] 
Juv.) 340 | 83}210/1/1]104] 21 » | &G] i 1 mn By || Ee 
Juv.| 315 211} 1/1 21 ® | &6) 2 1 " QF F2e 2) 
Juv.| 320 | 76|208/1/1| 97| 21 ® | 46] i 1 ms 2 | 242 | Karnak. 
9 | 810 |197/213]1/1| 99]. 21 ) | &6] 2 1 e 2 | 2+2 | W. bank of 
| Nile, Luxor. 
Juv. 318 | 76|/217]1/1|103| 21 ) | &@)} 2 1 5 2 | 242 |B. bank of 
= 6 1063 Nile, Luxor. 
| 9 | 803 |180}211/1/1| 87] 21 | 60) Sai a . 2 |H543| Assuan. 
|Juv.| 415 | 95/215/1/1| 95] 21 9 5, 6 1 1 * 2 | 242 a 
| 2 | 1000 }240|217}1/1| 93) 21 2 | Bel 2 2 56 2 | Wadi Halfa. 
if 
| 6 | 780 |200| 208) 1/1]103) 21 ? ? ? ? 2 2 ne 
Juv] 415/100] 217/1/1} 104; 23 | 9 | 66) 1 A aCe) Do Paes | elke, 
} | | ! | | 


ZAMENIS FLORULENTUS. 259 


Analysis of foregoing Table. 


Largest male 1028 millim, Largest female 1000 millim. 


Highest number of ventrals 222 9. Abu Roash. 
3 Fr caudals 104 juv. Luxor and Tokar. 


Lowest number of ventrals 205 ¢. Minia. 
5 $s caudals 829. Abu Roash, 
Range of ventrals 205-222 ==17. 
of caudals 82-104=22, 
Highest number of scales 23, Abu Roash, Assiut, and Tokar (3 specimens). 
Lowest 45 3; 6 Egypt and Eastern Sudan (26 specimens). 


7 males, 11 females, 10 juv., and 1 sex ?. 


I have found Mus orientalis in the stomach of an example of this species. 

Its native name is ,.]\= ==gidari, which means “ belonging to walls.” 

The most interesting of the specimens in the table on p. 258 are the male from Abu 
Roash and the young from Assiut and Tokar, each of which has 23 rows of scales across 
the body. Other slight variations occur, all of which are indicated in the table, except 
one, viz. the transverse division of the fifth upper labial, complete on one side of the 
head, but incomplete on the other, in a female from Assuan. 

It will be observed that in the eighth specimen on the list the eye is surrounded on 
one side of the head by the preocular, three suboculars, and two postoculars, thus 
excluding any of the upper labials from entering the orbital rim on that side. 


260 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


ZAMENIS RAVERGIERI, Ménétr. 


Coluber ravergieri, Ménétr. Cat. Rais. 1832, p. 69. 

Coluber maculatus (non Merr.), Dwigubsky, Nat. Hist. Russ., Amph. 1832, p. 26. 

Zamenis caudelineatus, part., Giinther, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 104; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, 
p- 489; Jan, Icon. Gén. livr. 23, 1867, pl. iii.; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 393. 

Periops caudolineatus, Jan, Filippi’s Viagg. in Persia, 1865, p. 355, 

Zamenis ravergieri, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) xxi. no. 4, 1878, p. 128; Blanford, East. 
Persia, Zool. ii. 1876, p. 417; Second Yarkand Exped. 1878, p. 22; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, 
p- 680; Bler. Trans. Linn. Soe. ser. 2, Zool. v. 1889, p. 102; Cat. Snakes B. M. 1. 1893, 
p. 405; id. op. cit. iii. 1896, p. 625; Sclater, Snakes Ind. Mus. 1891, p. 29; Méhely, Zool. 
Anz. 1894, p. 85; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 11. 

Zamenis fedtschenkoi, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Peétersb. (viil.) xxi. 1873, no. 4, p. 135, pl. iv. 

Zamenis ravergieri, var. fedtschenkoi, Boettger, Zool. Jahrb. Syst. i. 1888, p. 927. 

Zamenis glazounowi, Nikolski, Annuaire Ac. St. Pétersb. 1896, App. p. xiv. 


Body moderately long ; head broader in some than in others, occasionally depressed ; 
snout broad, obtusely rounded; rostral considerably broader than high, the portion 
visible above nearly equal to one-third of the interval between the rostral and frontal ; 
internasals quadrangular, nearly as large as the prefrontals, broadly in contact with the 
rostral; frontal as long as or, longer than the interval between its anterior border and 
the tip of the snout, its anterior breadth equal to about two-thirds of its length and 
much broader than the supraocular; parietals equal to the frontal and one-third of 
the prefrontals, slightly truncate posteriorly, generally with a few enlarged scales 
external to them; loreal nearly quadrangular, not unfrequently with one or more 
separated off portions of the labials below it; two preoculars, the upper broadly in 
contact with the frontal, less so than in the variety nwmmifer ; one subocular, rarely 
two; two postoculars (typical) and three postoculars (variety); temporals scale-like 
(typical), larger (variety); 9 upper labials, exceptionally 8 or 10, fifth and sixth 
entering orbit (typical) and fifth labial in variety, rarely 6 and 7 in the case of 10 labials. 
Anterior chin-shields in contact with five labials; posterior pair narrow and separated 
by scales. 21, rarely 23, rows of feebly keeled scales across the body (typical) and 23 
to 25 in the variety. Ventrals more or less angulate, 190-222; anal divided (typical 
form), occasionally single in variety ; subcaudals 75-101. 

General colour greyish or. yellowish, with transverse narrow brownish bands (typical 
form) or rhomboidal spots (variety) alternating with similarly coloured spots on the 
sides; the tail usually banded longitudinally, but occasionally with spots ; under 
surface whitish or profusely black-spotted; head generally with a dusky streak below 
the eye and another from the eye to the angle of the mouth, sometimes almost wholly 
black. 


ZAMENIS RAVERGIERI. 261 


The largest specimen recorded by Mr. Boulenger is 1330 millim. long, the tail 
forming 520 millim. 
It is distributed over Turkestan, Afghanistan, Persia, and Transcaucasia. 


Var. NUMMIFER, Reuss. (Plate XXXVII. fig. 2.) 


Couleuvre, Savigny, Descr. de ’Heypte, Hist. Nat., Suppl. Pl. Rept. pl. iv. (1818) figs. 61-63. 

Coluber nummifer, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 135. 

Coluber (Periops) nummifer, Riippell, Mus. Senck. i. 1845, p. 308. 

Zamenis hippocrepis, nov. sp.? or juv. of var.?, Giinther, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 104. 

Zamenis caudelineatus, part., Giinth. Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 104; Tristram, West. Palest., 
Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 144. 

Periops neglectus, Jan, Elenco, 1863, p. 60; Icon. Gén. livr. 48, 1876, pl. iv. fig. 3; Steindach. 
Unger & Kotschy’s Inseln Cypern, 1865, p.572; Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. il. 1876, p. 116. 

Zamenis (Periops) neglectus, Boettger, Zeitsch. ges. Nat. (Giebel) xlix. 1877, p. 286. 

Zamenis ravergieri, Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878, p. 95; Blgr. Ann. Mag. N. HE. 
(6) ii. 1888, p. 506. 

Zamenis neglectus, caudelineatus, &c., F. Miiller, Verh. naturf. Ges. Basel, vi. 1878, p. 667. 

Zamenis ravergieri, var. nummifer, Reuss, Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1880, p. 154, 

Zamenis nummifer, Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1891, p..633; Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 407 ; id. 
op. cit. iii. 1896, p. 625; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 12; Anderson, 
Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 107. 


1g.  Beltim. 
2juv. Margin of desert, Heluan. Dr. Adalbert Fényes. 


This variety is distinguished from the typical form more or less by the slighter 
extent in which the upper preocular plate is in contact with the frontal, so much so 
that the two are sometimes not in contact; by the frequent coalescence of the two 
preoculars, and by the presence generally of a third postocular produced by the upper 
portion of the sixth labial becoming cut off from the plate itself, so that this labial is 
excluded from the orbit ; in such cases, as a general rule, only the fifth enters, but when- 
ever only two postoculars are present the sixth enters the eye. The upper labials vary 
from 8 to 10, but these two numbers are very exceptional, 9 being almost universal. 
The temporals vary in size, but those of the first series are not so scale-like as in the 
typical form. The scales round the body are, as a rule, more numerous than in the 
Eastern snakes, as they vary from 23 to 25. ‘There are 197-216 ventrals, and 74-101 
subcaudals; the anal is sometimes single. 

General colour pale pinkish grey or bright olive-grey, with a dorsal series of large, 
rounded, dark brown spots margined with darker, and a lateral series of smaller, similarly 
coloured, more or less quadrangular spots alternating with them; on the tail the dorsal 
and lateral spots are continued as three dark longitudinal lines. A large dark brown 
spot with darker margins on each side of the frontal and on each supraocular; a short, 


262 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


oblique, dark band below the eye and a similar band from behind the eye to the angle 
of the mouth, and another on the temporal region ; labials and chin-shields with dark 
margins. ‘These head-markings are more or less obsolete in adults. Underparts 
yellowish white, obscurely clouded in some with greyish; the sides of the belly with 
a series of black spots. 

Mr. Boulenger gives the following as the dimensions attained by the variety, 
viz.: total length 1030 millim., tail 250 millim. 

It is present in Lower Egypt from Heluan to the Mediterranean coast, and beyond it 
ranges to Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and to the islands of Cyprus and Rhodes. 

It is known in Egypt as it ° 


Linneeus described, under the name of O. tyria’, a snake which, we are informed, was 
collected by Hasselquist in Egypt, and that had 210 ventrals and 83 subcaudals. 
It has been conjectured by some herpetologists that it might possibly have been 
Zamenis diadema, while by others it has been referred with doubt to this variety of 
Z. ravergiert ; but as the type specimen seems hopelessly lost, all speculation regarding 
it is useless. 

On the fourth Supplementary Plate of Reptiles of the ‘Description de lEgypte,’ 
bearing the date 1813, there is an excellent life-sized figure of an unnamed snake, of 
which no mention is made in the text, beyond indicating it and some others under the 
general term Coulewvre. Riippell, in one of his journeys to Egypt (1821-1854), 
obtained a snake which Retss identified with the foregoing figure and described 
as C. nummifer. It was also in the second decade of this century that James Burton 
(afterwards Haliburton), who sailed for Egypt in 1822, obtained his specimen, now 
preserved in the British Museum. 

In 1878, Miller, of Basel, pointed out that the snakes from Cyprus and Beirit 
described by Jan in 1863 as Periops neglectus were identical with Z. ravergier?, Ménétr., 
and with the Z. caudelineatus, Giinther ; and a year or so later Professor Boettger, in 
dealing with a number of specimens from Syria and Palestine, agreed with Miiller’s 
identification, but advanced a further stage, and pointed out that the C. numimifer, 
Reuss, with which they corresponded, could only be regarded as a variety or local form 
of Z. ravergiert. 

The accompanying table brings out clearly wherein they differ, and the details given 
in it appear to prove the correctness of Professor Boettger’s conclusion. It will be 


Hl = aram beiti. 


* Tt is difficult to conjecture what led Linneus to apply the term tyria to the snake in question. It is 
noteworthy that an old author * says: “In Mari Mortuo Tyrus serpens invenitur, unde tiriaca conficitur.” 
This substance was the preparation made from one of the Viperid, and used as an antidote in snake- 
poisoning. 


= Breydenbachius, in ‘ Peregrinatione, &c.,’ Mogunt., fol., 1486, quoted by Hermann, Obs. Zocl. 1804, 
p. 284. 


ZAMENIS RAVERGIERI. 


Detaiis relating to Z. ravergieri, Ménétr. 


Sex. 


Juv. 


Juv. 


Juv. 


Juy. 


Sub- 
caudals, 


89 
86 


88 
101 


79 


Scales. 


Upper Labials 
labials, /entering 
orbit. 
9 |5&6 
9 |5&6 
9 |5&6 
9 |5&6 
9 |5&6 
9 15&6 
9 |5&6 
9 15&6 
9 15&6 
9 |15&6 
10 |6&7 
L.10 |L.6&7 
R.9 |R.5&6 
9 |5&6 
L.9 |L.5&6 
R. — |R. — 
9 |5&6 
L. 10 
Rig | a6 
9 |5&6 
L.10 | L.6 
R.9 R.5 
9 |5&6 
9 |5&6 
9 5 
L.8 
R.9 5 
§ |5&6 
L.4&5 
z R. 5 
9 5 
© || & 


Relation 
Sub- | Pre- of pre- | Post- | Tem- 
oculars.| oculars.| oculars to | oculars, | porals, 
frontal, 
1 2 B.C. 2 243 
1 2 B.C. 2 243 
1 2 B.C. 2 243 
¢ L.2+2 
1 2 B.C. 2 R243 
1 2 B.C. 2) 3-53 
1 2 B.C. 2 243 
G L. 3+2 
1 | 2 | BG | @ Ree 
i 2 B.C. 2 243 
1 2 B.C. 2 343 
i 2 B.C. 2 2+3 
L. 243 
2 2 B.C. 2 R343 
1 2 B.C. 2 | 243 
1 2 B.C. 2 | 2+3 
1 2 B.C. 2 243 
a 2 B.C. 2 3+4 
L, 843 
1 Y | EO. | 8 PRR 
Var. nummifer. 
1 2 B.C 2 243 
1 1 C. 3 243 
2&3 2 
il 2 B.C. 2 243 
1 1 C. 3 
L. 2-2 
1 1 B.C. 3 R. 214 
1 2 Cc. 2 | 3+3 
L. 242 
1 2 C. 3 R.243 
il 1 B.C. 3 243 
3&4 He ied 


Loreals. 


263 


Locality. 


Pul-i-Khatun, 
Transcaspia. 

Shiraz. 

Ain Dara, Kopet 
Dagh. 

Shiraz. 

Tirphul. 

Shiraz. 

Old Gulran. 

Debhid, Persia. 

Nuhar, Kopet 
Dagh. 

Pula-Khatun. 


Kohrud, N. of 


Ispahan. 
Karman, Persia. 


Chin Kilak, 
Zandra, Afghan- 


istan. 
Samarkand. 


Rhodes. 


Jerusalem. 


Jerusalem 
(Miller). 
Asia Minor. 
Gizeh, Egypt. 
Egypt. 
Xanthus. 
Beltim, Egypt. 
Cyprus. 
Beirtit (Miller). 


Upper 
labials. orbit. 


Gey €) Ch GD fe) 


Oo OO iO OO 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Details &e. (continued). 


Labials 
entering 


we 
ae 


ies) 
bo 


bo 


ao 


bo 


Isl 


ao 
co 


oo 


| 


bo 


He oe 
CoH pho 


ws) 


b 


Locality. 


Hiram’s Tomb, 
Palestine. 
Egypt 
(Boettger). 
Cyprus. 


Jerusalem 
(Miiller). 
Cyprus. 


Beirtit (Miller). 
Cyprus. 
Jaffa 

(Boettger). 
Syria (Boettyer). 
Cyprus. 


Jerusalem 
(Boettger). 
Sarona, near 
Jatta (Miiller). 
Jerusalem. 


Nazareth. 
Heluan. 
Gizeh, Egypt. 
Syria (Boettger). 
Egypt. 
Cyprus. 
Jerusalem 
(Miller). 
Beirtit 
(Miller). 
Heluan, Egypt. 
Jerusalem 
(Miller). 
Beirtt 
(Boettger). 
Cyprus. 


Xanthus. 


Beirtit 
(Boettyor). 


13 out of 16 typical specimens with 9 upper labials, 5 & 6 in orbit; 


” 


ZAMENIS RAVERGIERI. 


Analysis of scaling of specimens recorded in foregoing Table. 


16 


37 


Highest number of ventrals, typical form, 218. 
5 FR 5 variety, 216. 
5 »  subcaudals, typical form, 101. 
5 % 0 variety, 101. 
Lowest number of ventrals, typical form, 190. 
“ FS variety, 197. 
5 »  Subcaudals, typical form, 82. 
es 9 9 variety, 74. 


190-218= 28. 
197-216 =19. 


Range of ventrals, typical form, 


x °s variety, 


Samarkand. 
Beyrut. 
Debhid, Persia. 
Xanthus. 
Pul-i-Khatun. 
Rhodes. 
Pul-i-Khatun. 
Egypt. 


14 out of 16 specimens of typical form with 21 rows of scales. 


2 ” 16 ” ” eh) 23 ” 
Ww 5 6S 3D variety ,, OB} 
25 ” 37 ” ” ” 25 ” 


3 out of 8 Egyptian specimens of variety with 23 rows of scales. 


) 5 9 25 
1_,, 11 Palestine A fe 23 
W@ 5 abl 9 % 0 25 
5 ,, 11 Syrian, Asia Minor, and Island of 
Rhodes specimens of variety.... 23 
Q gy al 50 ass 35 25 
3 ,, 7 Cyprus specimens of variety with 23 
Ciera ach op %p x 25 


9 ” 10 ” 6& 7 ” 
10 BEY 5 
” ” 9 ” 5&6 
10 
” ” 9 ” 5&6 ” 
of variety with 9 F 5&6 ,, 
9 3 9 ) BCG op 
” ” 9 ” 5 ” 
” ” 9 ” 5 ” 
” ” 9 ” 5 ” 
6 
” ” 9 ” 5 ” 
5&6 
” ” 9 ” FaB pel ” 
” ” 8 ” 5 ” 
5 
” ” 9 ” 5&6 ” 
5 
” ” 10 ” 5&6 ry) 
8 - 
” ” 9 ” 9) ” 
10 6 
’ ” 9 ” 5 ” 


2 postoculars. 

2 35 Division of labial 
anterior to orbit. 

2 0 Eb) 2? 

3 ” 

2 ” 

3 ” 

3 ” 

2 ” 

3 

5. ” 

3 ” 

3 


© = by Co be] &9 CO os/ bo 


266 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


observed that the extent of the suture formed by the preocular and the frontal is 
invariably broad in typical Z. ravergieri, and that in not a few cases in its variety 
nummifer the same character is present. Unfortunately a good many blanks occur 
under this column, as Dr. Miiller and Professor Boettger, whose observations I have 
incorporated in the table, did not record the condition of that suture in the specimens 
they examined. ‘he former naturalist did not apparently regard any of the shields 
before the eye as suboculars, and therefore when he spoke of 2& 3 and 3 & 4 preoculars 
he, in all likelihood, had in the first of these examples a snake with one preocular on 
one side of the head, the result of the union of two shields, and a subocular below it; 
while on the opposite side there were two unamalgamated preoculars and a subocular 
below them. In the second instance, 3 & 4, there were doubtless two preoculars and 
a subocular on one side, and two preoculars, a subocular, and a separated-off portion 
of a labial lying alongside the latter. When he and Prof. Boettger enumerate two 
loreals, the second loreal was in all probability a small portion of a labial set free 
and lying in close relation to the loreal, a condition not uncommon in examples of 
this species. With these explanations it will be seen that all the specimens of 
var. nummifer are distinguished by one or two preoculars and by one loreal only, as in 
ravergiert. The table conclusively proves the specific identity of all the specimens that 
appear in it, but at the same time establishes the desirability of regarding the western 
snakes as constituting a variety distinguished by slight modifications of no great 
stability. 

The number of the upper labials entering the orbit—. e. whether they are the 5th, 
5th & 6th, and so on—when the normal number 9 is present, depends chiefly on the 
circumstance whether a portion is separated off from the sixth labial or not ; and when 
their number is increased or diminished, the number to be assigned to them depends, of 
course, on whether the increase is due to division of the labials before or behind the 
orbit, and the same holds good of reduction in the number 9 by amalgamation. There 
may also be union of the postoculars or division, and with these facts kept in view 
the variations recorded in the foregoing tables are easily explicable. 


<XXVIIL. 


Dy 


PAL. 


Reptiles of Egypt: 


ZAMENIS DIADEMA. 


g , Pyramids of Gizeh. 


ZAMENIS DIADEMA. 267 


ZAMENIS DIADEMA, Schlegel. (Plate XX XVIII.) 


La Couleuvre aux raies paralléles, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil. Descr. de l’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ?1827, p. 47, 
pl. viii. (no date) figs. 1 & 1!. 

Coluber tyria, Linn., apud Geoffr. St.-Hil. op. cit. p. 151. 

Zamenis diadema, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 411; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 
1894, p. 121; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, 1894, no. 167, p. 12; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. 
Ges. Wien, xlv. 1895, p. 18; op. cit. xlvii. 1897, p. 407; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 
1896, pp. 71, 107; Alcock & Finn, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. Ixv. (April 12) 1897, pt. 11. p. 563. 


ljuv. East side of Suez Canal, near Suez. 
1. Fayid, west of Bitter Lakes. 

1 gd. Abu Roash. 

36,1 2,and2juv. Pyramids of Gizeh. 
1d andl ¢. Beni Hassan. M. W. Blackden, Esq. 

1 dg andl ¢@. Telecel Amarna. Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 
1g. Suakin. 

1 9. Durrur. 

1g. Oasis of Siwah. A. R. Birdwood, Esq. 


Body elongate, somewhat compressed; rostral as high as broad, or nearly so, the 
portion visible from above equals about one-third the length of the internasals ; 
internasals more or less quadrangular, shorter than the preefrontals, the suture between 
the two directed obliquely outwards and backwards; prefrontals generally broken up 
into a number of pieces; length of the frontal equalling or falling short of its distance 
from the end of the snout, its anterior breadth equals nearly two-thirds of its length, 
sides markedly concave, generally broadly in contact with the preocular, rarely 
excluded; parietals longer than the frontal, nearly twice as long as broad, rather 
narrow, their extreme length nearly equals the distance between the anterior angle and 
the end of the internasals, obliquely truncated posteriorly; supraocular about one- 
fourth narrower than the anterior border of the frontal; three to five loreals; two to 
four preoculars, occasionally only one; three to five postoculars ; two to four suboculars 
between the eye and the labials; temporals scaly. Ten to thirteen upper labials ; 
the sixth very exceptionally entering the orbit. Anterior pair of chin-shields 
large, in contact with five or six lower labials; posterior pair small, elongate, 
separated by three rows of scales. 25 to 33 rows of obtusely keeled scales 
round the body. 210-278 ventrals, with a more or less defined lateral ridge ; anal 1; 
subcaudals 65-110. 

General colour of upper surface reddish or greyish buff, or even sandy, with 
about 50 large, rhombic, dark brown spots on the body and about 25 on the tail, with 
a series of narrow oblong spots along the side alternate with the dorsal spots, 
quadrangular posteriorly and prolonged on to the tail; the lateral scales of the large 

2m2 


268 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


and small spots margined more or less with black, producing short black lines, and 
some of the scales around the spots pale coloured; the angle of every third or fourth 
ventral with a dusky spot, alternating with the lateral spots and prolonged on to the 
tail, or the ventrals immaculate. A more or less narrow black band along the side of 
the neck, corresponding in position to the lateral lines of the sides; a broad dark 
brown band from behind the eye to the angle of the mouth. Margins of labials dusky. 
Upper surface of the head reticulated and spotted with dark brown, or entirely black 
or nearly so. Under surface yellowish, immaculate. 

It attains to 1340 millim. in length, of which the tail forms 252 millim. 

This species is widely distributed over the Nile valley, and is one of the most common 
snakes of the country. It is equally prevalent in the Eastern Sudan (Suakin District), 
and is indeed spread over Northern Africa to the Algerian Sahara. It is also found 
in Arabia, Persia, Baluchistan, Turkestan, Northern India, and Kashmir (Gilgit), and 
in the latter two regions it has been met with at altitudes of about 5000 feet above 
the sea. 

It lives on small rodents, the remains of which I have removed from its stomach. 

It frequents the surroundings of the Pyramids of Gizeh, where it is not unfrequently 
found in the open deep tombs, and is also prevalent along the margin of the delta, and 
in the delta itself wherever there is dry sandy ground and sparse vegetation. 


o-u - usc 


According to Dr. W. Innes it is known to the natives as pe! \ j=ar'am ahmar ; 


I have also heard it called arkam, which is doubtless the same as the aerkam of 
Forskal, 3)! meaning ashy. 

It is seen in the possession of snake-charmers from Calcutta to Cairo. 

With one exception, viz. Gilgit in Kashmir (5000 ft.), the ventrals of this species, 
over the wide area of its distribution, Algeria to the North-west Provinces of India, 
do not exceed 248 in number ; but in Gilgit they rise to 278, which is a very remarkable 
increase. In North-western Africa 219 to 248 ventrals are met with, but in only 4 of 
13 individuals from Egypt proper are there more than 227 such shields, the higher 
numbers being 235, 234, 242, and 244. In Eastern Arabia the ventrals fall as low 
as 211, but in Persia, and further to the east, with the exception of Gilgit, the variation 
of the ventrals is much the same as in North-western Africa. 

In tracing the species from west to east it will be observed that there is a distinct 
increase in the number of the subcaudals, the lowest number of these shields in 
Northern Africa being 68 and the highest 78, while from Persia to Rajputana 80 to 
110 occur. We have thus at the extreme west snakes with the following formula: 
V. 219, S.C. 68; and at the extreme east snakes with V. 278, S.C. 110—thus yielding 
the striking variation of V. 59, S.C. 42. 


\ ZAMENIS DIADEMA. 269 
Measurements &e. (in millim.) of Z. diadema, Schlegel. 
Relation g 
Sex.| Total |Tai.|Ven-| Anal,|Cau-| Scales, | Upper |Uabials| sub. | Pree ei g Tem- | Localit: 
length trals, dals. labials, [TMS | ooulars. | oculars. to 2 | porals.| = of 
orbit. c i) 
frontal. A 
Juv.| 375 | 64/222) 1 | 75} 27 |12—l11) 0 3—3 oe B.C. |4—4|Seales| 2 | N.E. of Suez Canal. 
© | 1170 | 240) 242) 1 75 2) filS—18 © 3—3 | 3—3 B.C. |8—4]__,, 2 | Fayid, W. of Bitter 
Lakes. 
ce |) Ushly, |PeR eal i | We 27 =\12—12) 0 4—4 | 2—2 B.C. |8—2|_ ,, 2 | Pyramids of Gizeh. 
B || 120 (S80 22L| 1 | yal | OS) MG) O |) S=3 || S42) To RSs] | @ ef ~ 
é 888 | 170) 224) 1 | 75 29) 1 2== 112) 10 2—3 | 4—4 B.C. |4—4| _,, 2 | Abu Roash. 
| 
Juv.| 405 | 60/244) 1 | 70) 29 fe—11) 2S | 2 3/33] B.C. j4—4} ,, | 2 | Pyramids of Gizeh. 
© | 725 Ty eeBh a | a Bl Oe] Oey ey ay Rs a 
Juv.) 325 | 55/221| 1 | 78 || 29 |19-13| 0 |3-3|/9-3| Bo |4-4) , | 9 i 2 
| 9 1310 | 210) 284) 1 29 |\1l1—12) 0 38—3 | 3—4] B.C. |8—8 ,, 2 | Beni Hassan. 
| @ || 1250 232/225] 1 |) tr | 2) eel © | BS ses | wey es | al. 
| @ || LOW? | US 22) I | va | SO MO — IB) © 38—3 | 2-2] B.C. |4—4| ,, 2 | Tel el Amarna. 
| @ |) G38 | 58) 235) 2 | 7] Sl e719] @ | Ss] 42) Boe Bea . 2 e 
3 931 | 160/227) 1 | 71 29 /11—11) 0 3—3 | 3—3 B.C. |4—4| _,, 2 | Suakin. 
2 873 | 148/236) 1 | 72 27 {11—10) 0 3—3 | 2—3 | B.Ex. |5—5d)_,, 2 | Durrur. 
3S | 1840 | 252/226) 1 | 77 BY Na) ) 3—3 | 2—2 B.C. |4—4| _,, 2 | Gizeh. 
| 3g 655 | 145] 218) 1 | 74 29) |12——12)" 0 4—4 | 4—4 B.C. |8—83|__,, 3 |Oasisof Siwah. 
Table illustrating the variations of Z. diadema, Schlegel. 
Ventrals. Subcaudals. Scales, 
219-248 68-74 25-31 N.W. Africa, Tripoli, Tunisia, and Algeria. 
218-244 70-78 27-31 N.E. Africa, Egypt. 
227-236 71-72 27-29 Eastern Sudan. 
238 78 27 N.W. Arabia. 
224-236 85 25 8.E. Arabia. 
211-226 73-80 25-27 Eastern Arabia. 
230-248 80-86 25-31 Persia. 
218-239 87-90 27 Baluchistan. 
220-247 82-100 27-29 Afghanistan. 
240-244 100-103 29-31 Sind. 
239 110 29 Rajputana. 
228-244 103-107 29-31 Punjab. 
243 102 27 N.W. Provinces, India. 
278 107 29 Kashmir (Gilgit). 


270 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


I am indebted to Mr. Boulenger’s Catalogue for the grouping of the following details 


by which it is possible to recognize the species of Zamenis met with in Egypt:— 


Synopsis of the Species. 


I. Internasals and preefrontals distinct, not broken up, 
1. Scales in 19 rows (rarely 17, Z. gemonensis). 
a. Frontal not or but slightly wider than the supraocular, more than once 
and a half as long as broad. 
Przocular invariably excluded from frontal. Ventrals with indistinct 
lateral keel. Scales with two apical pits . 3 RO, omen 
Preocular usually in contact with frontal. Ventrals with distinct 
lateral keel. Scales with a single apical pit . 4 
6. Frontals anteriorly considerably broader than the supraocular. 
Height of the rostral nearly equal to its breadth. Ventrals 213-262 ; 
A. 1/1; S.C. 1138-154 
Height of the rostral about half its eee Wentrol 195-215 : oN W/; 
8.C. 95-105 . Se hed shies Wc ir Heal 
. Scales smooth, in 21 rows, rarely 23, One preocular tranele divided), with 
a subocular below it. Two labials entering orbit . enor 
3. Scales obtusely or faintly keeled, in 21 to 25 rows. One or two pre- 
oculars ; one, rarely two seuboculars: Two or fe one labial entering 
orbit Se os eee ae ee CAN eo «S| Gil OD OROM ar Sp 
Il. Preefrontals broken up into a varying number of pieces. 25 to 33 rows of 
keeled scales. No labials entering orbit, or very rarely so. Eye surrounded 
by scales. 3 to 5 loreals . 


Z. gemonensis. 


Z. dahhi. 


Z. rhodorhachis. 
Z. rogerst. 


Z. florulentus. 


Z. vravergiert. 


Z. diadema. 


LYTORHYNCHUS DIADEMA. 271 


LYTORHYNCHUS. 
Lytorhynchus, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 272. 


Body elongate, cylindrical; tail moderate or short; head scarcely distinct from the 
neck. Eye moderate, pupil slightly vertically elliptic. Rostral large, folded back on 
the upper surface of the head, and at a sharp angle laterally in front of the nasals, 
concave below. Nostril small, lateral, oblique, between two shields; one or more 
loreals. Body-scales 19, without apical pits, smooth or feebly keeled, in longitudinal 
and oblique series ; ventrals angulate; anal divided or entire. Maxillary teeth few in 
number, posterior much longer than the anterior ; mandibular teeth subequal. 


Dr. Alcock and Mr. Finn have found the subocular (so-called) poison-gland well 
developed in the two species L. ridgewayt and L. maynardi. 


LYTORHYNCHUS DIADEMA, Dum. & Bibr. (Plate XX XVII. fig. 3.) 

Lytorhynchus diadema, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 415; Konig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Verh. 
Bonn, 1892, p. 22; Matschie, S.B. Ges. nat. Fr. Berl. 1893, no. 1, p. 31; Olivier, Mém. Soc. 
Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 119; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 107; Franca- 
viglia, Bull. Soc. Rom. Stud. Zool. v. 1896, p. 36. 

Heterodon (Lytorhynchus) diadema, Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878, p. 95. 

1 g. West bank of Suez Canal, between Suez and Ismailia. 

] juv. Abu Roash. 

1g. Gizeh, margin of desert. 


Head convex from before backwards; rostral abruptly transversely truncated, 
continued backwards in a line with the nostrils, sides of its lateral angulation free, 
thick, and more or less puckered, lateral margins of the upper portion more convex in 
some than in others, hardly separated from the prefrontals, its upper portion equalling 
the length of the internasals and preefrontals in the mesial line ; internasal suture more 
than half the length of the prefrontal; prefrontals in contact with the internasals, 
posterior nasals, loreal, upper preocular, supraocular, and frontal; the latter rather 
short and broad, shield-shaped, its length equalling the distance of its anterior border 
from the tip of the snout ; anterior nasal the larger; loreal square, larger in some than 
others, generally lying on the second and third labials, and occasionally in contact with 
the fourth as well. One or two preoculars, and occasionally a subocular; two 
postoculars ; seven or eight upper labials, the fourth, the fifth, or the fourth and fifth 
entering the orbit. Generally three lower labials in contact with the anterior chin- 
shields, rarely four. Scaies smooth. Ventrals 160-187; anal 1/1; subcaudals 36-46. 


272 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


The general colour of the upper surface varies from reddish buff (Algeria), pale 
yellow (Egypt and Persia), to reddish brown (Syria) ; thirty-three to forty-one transverse, 
rhomboidal, dark brown spots on the back, the centres of the scales forming them 
generally paler than their margins, and some of the scales occasionally becoming nearly 
white ; a few obscure dark spots on the sides alternating with the dorsal spots; eight 
to thirteen narrow dark cross-bars on the tail; an elongate, dark, longitudinal band 
from the frontal to the nape, occasionally enclosing one or two round white spots, and 
giving off anteriorly a narrow band between the eyes; an obscure, short, dark band 
below the eye, and another more or less prominent dark band from behind the eye to 
the gape ; underparts white. 

It attains to a length of 455 millim., of which the tail measures 60 millim. 

It does not appear to be at all a common species in Egypt, throughout which, 
however, it must have a wide range, as Peters recorded it from Sennaar. It is found 
in localities presenting the most diverse physical characters—e. g., the arid surroundings 
of the Pyramids of Gizeh and of Suez, the high elevated grassy plateau of Batna 
(3350 ft.), Algeria, under snow in winter, and Sennaar, where the heat is tropical. It 
extends also to Syria, Arabia, Persia, and Baluchistan. 

The specimens here recorded were found under stones lying on loose sandy soil. 
Its food consists of small lizards. 

I have not been able to discover its native name. 


Measurements &c. of Lu. diadema, Dum. & Bibr. (in millim.). 


g é Relation 
Snout , |Ven-|Cau-| © | Labials} gup. | Pree- of Tem- - : 
Sex. to |Tail.|irals|dals.| 3 |eMtering| ooulars. | oculars. |Pr2oculars| porals. | ‘= Locality. 
vent. 1 “| 2 | orbit. 7 4 to P hats 
5 frontal. 3 
so | 863 | 72/168) 40] 8 5 il 2 B. Ex. | 2+2 | 1 | West of Suez Canal. 
5 | 
Juv. 166 | 29|163| 42/8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | B.Ex |B5%3) 1 | Abu Roash. | 
| ¢ | 361 | 64/164) 40/8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | B.Ex. |BS+3/ 1 | Pyramids of Gizeh. | 
| 5 f i, I | b.242 ; ot | 
e) 75 | 65 |181} 43] 8 R.0 iL B. Ex. |R {49} 1 | Maskat, Arabia. | 
| 9 | 395 | 60 |187| 36] 8 |4%5| 1 | 1 | BeEx. [R313] 1 | Bushi, S. Persia. 
| 
g | 359 | 66 |161| 44] 8 1 L.2 | B. Ex. | 1+1/] 1 | Algeria. 
| 2 | 348 172 | 8|4&5| 0 i B. Bx. | 2+2 | 1 | Ain Sefra, Algeria. 
| 380 | 68 |164! 40 | 8 5 il p) 1 | Jaffa (Boetiger). 
| 233 | 43 |162| 39 | 8 1 2 iver -p | 
| 
| 383 | 60 |169/ 88 | 8 |4&5 a es 5 
| | 


: Partially divided on left side. 


LYTORHYNCHUS DIADEMA. 273 


It will be observed that the Arabian and 8. Persian snakes are seemingly distin- 
guished by a larger number of ventrals than those from other localities, but it is quite 
probable that, with additional materials, the supposed difference may disappear. 

Ina specimen from Ain Sefra, Algeria, lent to Mr. Boulenger by Professor Doumergue, 
the upper portion of the rostral is not so rounded posteriorly as in the Egyptian speci- 
mens ; but in another, also from Algeria, although this part of the rostral is considerably 
injured, the form of its outline is much the same as in the Egyptian snakes. There 
are slight differences in the relative dimensions of the internasals and prefrontals, but 
they are too unimportant to call for any more attention than this passing remark. In 
the typical form from Algeria there may be one or two preoculars, and a subocular 
may be present or absent. In a specimen from Bushi in Southern Persia there is 
one preocular and one subocular ; and on one side of the head, in an example from 
Maskat, there is the same arrangement, but on the opposite side of the head the latter 
shield is absent, as is the case in a specimen from Ain Sefra. In Egyptian specimens 
and in others from Jaffa there are two preoculars and one subocular, or, if the latter 
be regarded as preocular, then there are three preoculars as stated by Boettger; the 
size of the loreal also varies, it being larger in some than in others. Only in one 
instance among the specimens that have come under my observation have four labials 
been in contact with the first pair of chin-shields. It is from the neighbourhood of 
the Suez Canal. 


274 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


COLUBER‘’. 
Coluber, part., Linn, Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 375. 


* Maxillary teeth 12 to 22, subequal in size; anterior mandibular teeth longest. Head 
distinct from neck, elongate; eye moderate or rather large, with round pupil ; loreal 
sometimes absent. Body elongate, cylindrical or feebly compressed; scales smooth 
or keeled, with apical pits, in 15 to 35 rows; ventrals rounded or angulate laterally. 
Tail moderate or long ; subcaudals in two rows.’—Boulenger. 


CoLuBeEr situLa, Linn. (Plate XXXVII. A. fig. 2.) 


Coluber situla, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1758, p. 223; Mus. Adolph. Frid. Prod. ii. 1764, p. 44; Syst. 
Nat. 12th ed. i. 1766, p. 385. 

Coluber quadrilineatus, Pallas, Zoogr. Ross.-As. iii. 1811, p. 40. 

Coluber trilineatus, Metaxa, Monogr. Serp. Rom. 18238, p. 44 note. 

Coluber leopardinus, Bonap. Faun. Ital. p. & pl. unnumbered, 1834, fig.1; Blgr. Cat. Snakes 
B. M. 11. 1894, p. 41. 

Coluber cruentatus, Steven, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. vii. 1835, p. 317, pl. 9 (var. 8). 

Callopeltis leopardinus, Bonap. Mem. Ac. Tor. (2) 11. 1839, p. 432; Nordmann in Demidoff, Voy. 
Russ. Mérid, iii. 1840, p. 348, pls. vi., viii., & ix. 

Ablabes quadrilineatus, Dum. & Bibr. vii. p. 319. 

Natriz leopardina, Cope, Proc. Ac. Philad. 1862, p. 338. 

Coronella quadrilineata, Jan, Arch. Zool. Anat. Fis. ii. 1863, p. 247; Icon. Gén. livr. 13, 1865, pl. 5. 

Callopeltis quadrilineatus, Schreib. Herp. Europ. 1875, p. 277. 


Snout obtuse, rather broad; rostral broader than high, scarcely, if at all, visible 
from above; internasals slightly broader than long or nearly as broad as long, smaller 
than the prefrontals, more or less quadrangular; preefrontals considerably longer than 
the internasals; frontal shield-shaped, as long as the median suture of the parietals, 
equal to the distance between its anterior border and the tip of the snout, nearly twice 
as broad as the supraocular ; its anterior breadth equal to two-thirds of its length ; 
parietals moderately long, equal to the length of the frontal, and one-half the length 
of the prefrontal ; loreal nearly twice as long as high ; one preocular, broadly excluded 
from the frontal; two postoculars; 8 upper labials, the fourth and fifth entering the 
orbit ; temporals 1, 1+2, 2-2, or 2+8; anterior chin-shields nearly twice as large as 
the posterior pair, in contact with five sublabials, posterior pair separated by scales. 
25 to 27 rows of smooth scales across the body ; ventrals rounded or slightly angulate 
at their sides, 220-260; A. 1/1; S.C. 68-89. 

Uniform greyish ashy, with a mesial dorsal whitish line or narrow band margined 
with black, with a broader brownish band external to it on each side also margined 
externally with black; the sides with black reticulations. Under surface whitish, 

* Cat. Snakes B. M. ii, 1894, p. 24. 


COLUBER SITULA. 279 


more or less spotted with blackish. A black semilunar band, convex anteriorly, 
passing across the upper surface of the head from the anterior margin of one supra- 
ocular to the other, anterior to the frontal, but involving the hinder half of the 
preefrontals ; a narrow black line between the suture of the supraocular and parietal 
and passing backwards to the angle of the mouth, and a narrow black line along the 
mesial suture of the parietals and bifurcating posteriorly to join the lower black 
marginal line of each lateral brown body-band ; labials margined with blackish. 

In the variety to which the term quadrilineatus has been given there are four 
longitudinal bands, and in the typical form lJeopardinus there is a series of brown or 
reddish spots margined with black, more or less transverse in their arrangement and 
alternating with smaller black spots on the sides. The under surface in these colour 
varieties is sometimes almost wholly black. 

It attains, according to Mr. Boulenger, to 900 millim. in length, of which the tail is 
160 millim. ae 

It is distributed from the Adriatic (Trieste) to the Euxine (Crimea), Southern Italy, 
Malta, Greece and its islands, Chios, Asia Minor, and Syria. 

Boettger has recorded it from Beirat, but its presence in Egypt has yet to be 
confirmed. While it is true that Linneeus ascribed the specimen now in the Stockholm 
Museum to Egypt, it is noteworthy that it was not included by Hasselquist in his 
account of his discoveries in that country, and it must therefore be supposed that it 
was afterwards found by Linneus among the collections of his late pupil, along with 
two other species—C. jugularis and C. tyria, also referred to Egypt. The last- 
mentioned type has been lost. ‘This species, C. st¢tula, however, has never been met 
with in Egypt since the days of Linnzus, and, in conjunction with this, the fact that 
Hasselquist travelled through part of Palestine and also of Asia Minor cannot be lost 
sight of in estimating the reliance to be placed on the accuracy of the locality ascribed 
to it and to Z. jugularis. 

This species was first described in the 10th ed. of the Syst. Nat., and it appeared in 
the second part of the Mus. Adolph. Frid.1, and again in the 12th ed. of the former 


? Linneus, in the first part of the Catalogue of Adolphus Frederick’s Museum (1754), described a snake 
under the name of Coluber corallinus*. In the margin of the text’ the sex is given as that of a male, the 
ventrals as 193, and the subcaudals as 82, and, what is rather a novelty in Linneus’s description of snakes, 
the number of scales across the body is stated to have been 17; and the scales are said to have been 
smooth. This snake was said to have been obtained in Egypt. A reference to Seba’s work is quoted as 
follows :—“ Serpens corallina amboinensis, Seba, Thes. 2, p. 18, t. 17. fig. 1.” It is further mentioned that 
it was “Serpens ipsissimus SHBAH, delineatus in thesauro, qui deglutit ac ingurgitat Lacertam coeruleam, sc.” 
This serpent reappears in the 10th and in the 12th edition of the Syst. Nat., but in both of these works 
Asia is substituted for Egypt. Mr. Boulenger, in the Appendix to the third volume of the ‘Cat. of 
Snakes’ t, identified it with Liophis triscalis, Linn., of South America, and a drawing which Mr. Smit made 
of the specimen at Stockholm, that came from the Museum of Drottningholm, fully verifies the correctness 
of his identification. 

* Op. cit. p. 33. Tr P. 634. 


276 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


work, The type still exists in the Stockholm Museum. The bottle in which it is 
preserved has the original Linnean printed label Coluber situla attached to it, and in 
Quensel’s MS. catalogue of the Museum the specimen is stated to be the type of the 
species, to have come from Egypt, and to have been one of the specimens from the 
Drottningholm Museum. Linnzus, in his description, records that the specimen had 
235 ventrals and 48 caudals. Mr. P. J. Smit counted the shields of the type at my 
request, and in his notes they are put down as ventrals 235, caudals 48; he mentions 
that the anal is divided. It would thus appear to be what it claims to be, viz. the type 
of C. situla. It has 27 smooth scales across the body from side to side, is 870 millim. 
long, but the tail is imperfect. 

I have to record my obligations to Prof. Smitt for having permitted me to figure in 
this work the type specimen of this Linnean species that has lain now nearly a century in 
spirit, practically unknown to herpetologists. When I received the drawings of C. situla, 
Linn., I showed them to Mr. Boulenger, who at once recognized them as representing 
Coluber leopardinus. After a careful comparison of the drawings with specimens 
of that species, I have fully satisfied myself of the identity of the two. From 
Plate XX XVII. A. fig. 2 it will be seen that Hasselquist’s specimen belongs to the 
striped variety, trilineata. Linnzus says, “ griseus vitta longitudinali utrinque linea 
nigra marginata.” + 


. Tn his systematic enumeration of,the Coronellide in the Milan Museum, Jan* has mentioned a specimen 
of Coronella austriaca said to have come from Cairo, which he regarded as a variety and named egyptiaca. 
Strauch 7, in his account of the snakes of Russia, repeated Jan’s statement that C. austriaca occurred in 
Egypt, but adduced no additional evidence in support of this improbability. It is noteworthy, however, 
that no allusion was made by Jan to the variety wgyptiaca in the Icon. Gen. Oph. 


* Arch. Zool. Anat. e Fisiol. ii. 1863, fase. ii. p. 238; Elenco Sist. 1863, p. 48. 
t+ Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) xxi. no. 4, 1873, p. 43. 


Lo 
ba | 
ca | 


OLIGODON MELANOCEPHALUS. 


OLIGODON. 
Oligodon, Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 519. 


Body cylindrical, moderately elongate; tail short or somewhat long; head ovate, not 
distinct from the neck; rostral large; nostril between two plates, either in a single 
or ina partially divided nasal; eye small, pupil round. Dorsal scales rhomboidal, 
smooth, in 15 to 17 rows. Maxillary teeth 6 or 8, enlarged from before backwards, 
the terminal long and strong; no pterygoid teeth; palatines either edentulous or with 
two or three teeth; mandibular teeth slightly longer anteriorly than posteriorly. 


OLIGODON MELANOCEPHALUS, Jan. (Plate XXXIV. fig. 2.) 
Oligodon melanocephalus, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. ii. 1894, p. 246. 


Head small; snout somewhat pointed; rostral projected backwards between the 
internasals, portion visible from above equalling the distance between the rostral 
and the frontal or somewhat longer; internasals smaller than the prefrontals, the 
suture between them as long as that between the latter; frontal shield-shaped, slightly 
longer than its anterior breadth, equalling in length the interval between its anterior 
border and the tip of the snout; supraocular considerably narrower than the frontal ; 
parietals a little longer than the frontal, rounded posteriorly; nasal single, oblong; 
loreal square, present or absent ; one preocular, broadly excluded from the frontal ; 
one postocular ; temporals 1+1 or 142; six or seven upper labials, the third and 
fourth entering the orbit; anterior pair of chin-shields in contact with three or four 
labials; posterior pair almost scale-like. 15 rows of scales. Ventrals 181-229; 
anal 1/1; subcaudals 53-68. 

Upper surface reddish olive, lower surface yellowish white; upper surface of head, 
rostral shield, nape and sides of the neck bluish black. 

Dr. Giinther gives the total length of the specimen which served him as the type of 
Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus, here figured, as being nearly 460 millim., of which 
the tail formed 75 millim. 

Only a single example of this species has ever been recorded from Africa. It was 
found at Cairo, and is preserved in the Museum at Basel. It is also present in the 
Sinaitic Peninsula, Palestine, and Syria. 


bo 
=I 
(oe) 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


RHACHIODONTIN Az". 


DASYPELTIS. 
Dasypeltis, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 178. 


Body elongate, rounded, or slightly compressed; head small, short, scarcely distinct 
from the neck; head-scales regular; frontals and parietals subequal ; no loreal; nasal 
semidivided; no mental groove; eye moderate, pupil vertical. Scales with apical pits, 
strongly keeled, lanceolate, in twenty-three to twenty-seven rows, three or four of the 
outer rows arranged obliquely and with serrated keels. Maxillary and mandibular 
teeth small, 3 to 7 in number. 


DASYPELTIS ScaBRA, Linn. (Plate XXXIV. fig 3, and Plate XX XIX.) 


Dasypeltis scabra, Blgy. Cat. Snakes B. M. ii. 1894, p. 354, and iii. 1896, p. 648; Ann. Mus. Civ. 
Genova, (2) xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 553; id. op. cit. (2) xvi. (xxxvil.) 1896-97, pp. 20 & 279; 
Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) xix. 1897, p. 279; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 801; Bocage, Herpét. 
d’ Angola et du Congo, 1895, p. 107; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soe. 1894, p. 87; Werner, Verh. 
zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlv. (1895) p.193; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 114; 
Bocage, Jorn. Sc. Lisb. (2) iv. 1896, no. 14, p. 78; Tornier, Kriechth. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. 
1897, p.78; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlvii. 1897, p. 399. 

Dasypeltis scaber, Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. 1. 1876, p. 119. 

Dasypeltis fusciata, Matschie, Zool. Jahrb. Syst. v. 1890, p. 617. 


12. Fayum. A. R. Birdwood, Esq. 


Snout short, broadly rounded anteriorly ; rostral broader than deep, slightly visible 
above; internasals somewhat shorter than the prefrontals, sometimes coalescing and 
broadly in contact with rostral; preefrontals prolonged down on to the side of the head, 
the sutures with the frontal posteriorly divergent; frontal somewhat variable, longer than 
broad, shield-shaped, about twice as long as the distance between its anterior border and 
the end of the snout, traversed by a well-defined, broad, mesial furrow; supraocular 
elongate, rather narrow, its greatest breadth less than half its length, broadly in contact 
with the prefrontal; parietals as long as or longer than the frontal, slightly divergent 
posteriorly or rounded; one, seldom two preoculars; two postoculars, rarely one or 
three ; temporals 54+3 or 2+3 or 3+4, occasionally 1+5, the lowest anterior 
temporal occasionally enlarged; seven or eight upper labials, sometimes six, the 


' Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. ii. 1894, p. 353 :—“ Only a few teeth, on the posterior part of the maxillary and 
dentary bones and on the palatines. Some of the anterior thoracic vertebre with the hypapophysis much 
developed, directed forwards, and capped with enamel.” 


XXXIX. 


Pi. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


SCABRA. 
FAYUM. 


LTIS 


3 


DASYPI 


9 THE 


DASYPELTIS SCABRA. 279 


third and fourth, or second and third, entering the orbit; anterior chin-shields large, 
in contact with three lower labials; posterior chin-shields about half the size of the 
anterior, in contact with two labials. 23 to 27 scales round the body. 185-263 
ventrals; anal 1; subcaudals 41-94. 

Colour above olive, greyish, or dark brown, occasionally uniformly so, or with a 
dorsal series of large, dark brown, more or less elongately oval or round spots, some 
more or less slightly bifurcate posteriorly; a lateral series of smaller brown spots 
along the side, alternating with the former, and every third or fourth pair of ventrals 
with a black spot on the angles. Head obscurely marbled with dark brown and greyish, 
with a A-shaped mark from the parietals backwards obliquely to the angle of the mouth> 
and a more or less similarly shaped but much broader mark on the nape, sometimes 
broken up into a large dorsal spot, with a smaller spot obliquely behind it. Upper 
labials with dusky sutures. Underparts yellowish, immaculate, or spotted with brown 
or black. 

The coloration of the Egyptian snake is practically identical with that of the type 
described by Linneus. ‘There are, however, certain variations, all of which have 
been indicated by Mr. Boulenger. In some the dorsal spots become more or less 
confluent as a zigzag vertebral band, and a black stripe runs along the upper surface 
of the tail and the belly is spotted with black; but the most striking variety is that 
in which the dorsal] and lateral. bands unite to form cross-bands and the belly is 
unspotted. There is, however, a still further marked variation in which all the spots 
and markings disappear and the snake is a uniform brown above. Another variety is 
intermediate between the typical form and the latter, as the markings tend to become 
effaced. In Abyssinia snakes conforming to the Egyptian specimen are found, but 
with the ventrals edged with black. 

It. attains to a length of 760 millim., of which the tail measures 105 millim. 

Gasco, who was the first to record the presence of this species in Egypt, states that 
he obtained 8 examples in Middle Egypt, but in what part of it he does not mention. 
After much correspondence with those in Egypt who have been assisting me in my 
researches, at last, through the efforts of Mr. A. R. Birdwood, after I had almost 
given up all hope of finding this species, I received the specimen herein recorded alive, 
and am thus enabled to give a figure of it from life. It was obtained in the Fayum. 

This species has a wide distribution over Africa, from Sierra Leone to Somaliland, 
southwards to the Cape of Good Hope, and northwards along the valley of the Nile 
to within about 140 miles of the Mediterranean. 

Possibly one reason why this species has been overlooked, until 1876, may be due 
‘to the circumstance that it may have been avoided on account of its extremely close 
resemblance to Echis carinatus. In coloration they are almost identical. ‘The similarity 
of the two extends even to the character of their scales, in this respect, that in the 
poisonous Hchis, as in this harmless egg-eater, some of the outer rows of the dorsal 


280 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


scales are modified to produce a noise when the folds of the body are rubbed against 
one another, as occurs also in Cerastes. The simulation by Dasypeltis of these characters 
of the poisonous snake might be said to be its protection, but, on the other hand, the 
resemblance of Echis to Dasypeltis might likewise be to its advantage! 

As is well known, it lives exclusively on the eggs of birds. On Plate XX XIX. it is 
represented in the act of swallowing a pigeon’s egg, but fowls’ eggs are even within 
its capacity. Dr. Andrew Smith!, writing in 1842, says: “ The paucity and smallness 
of the teeth in the mouth are favourable to the passage of the egg, and permit of its 
progress without injury, whereas were they otherwise, many eggs, which have very 
thin shells, would be broken before they entered the gullet, and the animal in 
consequence would be deprived of its natural food when within its reach.” After the 
egg has passed back behind the head into the gullet its further progress is arrested 
and the snake makes violent efforts to crush it by contracting its neck. The modified 
hypapophyses of the anterior thoracic vertebre protruding into this part of the 
cesophageal tract and capped with enamel-like teeth now perform their function, and, by 
the egg being forced against them by muscular contraction of the neck, fracture the 
shell, the contents of which pass backwards to the stomach, while the crushed egg-shell 
is prevented from doing so by the gullet teeth. After all the fluid contents have been 
squeezed out of the broken-up shell the latter is ejected from the mouth as a pellet 
about 15 minutes after the egg has been swallowed, 

I have not been able to ascertain whether the natives have any name for this 
snake. The specimen sent alive by Mr. Birdwood simply bore the name “Snake of 
the Fayum.” 


Measurements &c. of D. scabra, Linn. (in millim.). 


Relation 
Labials of prae- 
Sex. | Total | -pain,| Ven-| Anal.| ©au-| Seales, | Upper entering Sub- | Pre- | ooulars | Post- | Tem- | Toreal, Locality. 
length. trals. dals. labials. | opi, | Oculars.| oculars,| 4, | oculars. | porals. 
frontal. 
ialagel ewer SS = 
2 602 | 95 | 230) 1 | 49 24 8 4&5 0 1 B. Ex. 2 343 0 Fayum. 


It seems remarkable that a snake of this kind, so specialized as regards its food- 
supply, should have been unknown to the ancient Egyptians. ‘There is no evidence, 
so far as I have been able to discover, that they were acquainted with it, unless the 
figure, said to occur on the monuments, of a hawk-headed serpent with an egg in its 
mouth may have been derived from some knowledge of it. 


1 Til. Zool. S. Afr. pl. Lxxiii. 


TARBOPHIS. 281 


Series B. OPISTHOGLY PHA. 
DIPSADOMORPHINAL. 


TARBOPHIS. 


Tarbophis, Fleischmann, Dalm. Nov. Serp. Gen. 1831, p. 17. 


Body elongate, cylindrical, slightly compressed ; head distinct from the neck ; tail 
moderately long, cylindrical, pointed ; eye rather large, pupil vertically elliptic ; nostril 
in an entire, semidivided or divided nasal; loreal present. Scales smooth, with apical 
pits, in 19-25 rows; ventrals round; anal entire or divided. Maxillary teeth in two 
groups: an anterior, 10-12 in number, decreasing in length from before backwards, 
and a posterior group of two grooved fangs separated from the former by an interspace 
and placed far back in the mouth; anterior mandibular teeth long, posterior much 


shorter. 


Milne-Edwards!, in 1860, pointed out that in this series of serpents there exists a 
gland analogous to the poison-gland of the Proteroglypha and sometimes confounded 
with the series of superior labial glands which some authors call the maxillary gland ; 
and Mr. G. 8. West ? has recently examined this point in a number of genera. 


The serpents from Southern Syria referred to the following species had been regarded 
_as examples of 7. fallax, Fleischm., until Mr. Boulenger showed (‘ Cat. Snakes,’ iii. 
p. 48) that they constitute a distinct species, of which he believes we find figures on 
Suppl. Rept. pl. iv. (1813) figs. 21-23 of the ‘ Descr. de l' Egypte.’ He accordingly 
named it 7. savignyi. As these figures are the only records extant of its supposed 
occurrence in Egypt, a portion of fig. 21 with figs. 22 and 23 are here reproduced, along 
with Mr. Boulenger’s description of the species drawn up from Southern Syrian 
specimens, for much the same reasons as those mentioned under Zamenis dahlit. 


* Legons Phys. et Comp. Anat. vi. p. 225. 
* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, pp. 812-826, pls. xliv. & xlv. 


Lo 
co 
Lo 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


TARBOPHIS SAVIGNYI, Blgr. (Fig. 11 text.) 


IED 


Couleuvre, Savigny, Descr. de Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1829, Suppl. Rept. pl. iv. (1813) figs. 21- 
Tarbophis savignyi, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1896, p. 48. 


“Very closely allied to 7. fallaa, but snout shorter and broader; internasals broader 
than long; frontal not more than once and one third as long as broad; nasal entire 
or semidivided ; loreal once and a half to twice and a half as long as deep, usually 


entering the eye; posterior chin-shields narrowly separated from each other in front. 
Scales in 19 rows. Ventrals 174-190; anal divided; subcaudals 45-57. Yellowish 


Fig. 11. 


Tarbophis savignyt, Blgr. 


Reproduced from Plate iv. (1813) figs. 21, 22, and 23 of Reptiles (Supplement), Descr. de l’Egypte. 


above, with a dorsal series of 23 to 28 dark brown or black spots on the body, 
these spots sometimes confluent with a lateral series of spots or vertical bars which 
usually alternate with the dorsal series ; the first blotch largest, covering the nape and 
descending to the sides of the neck, which it may entirely encircle; head greyish 
above, dotted with black and with a few small black spots ; labials dark-edged; belly 
black, or much spotted or marbled with dark brown or black. 

“ Total length 465 millim.; tail 65. 

“Southern Syria, Lower Egypt.” 


bS 
[o/e) 
oo 


TARBOPHIS OBTUSUS. 


TaRBOPHIS OBTUSUS, Reuss. (Plate XXXIV. fig. 4.) 


Couleuvre, Savigny, Descr. de ?Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1829, Suppl. pl. v. (1812) figs. 1i-ls. 

Coluber obtusus, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 137. 

Dipsas egyptiacus, Schlegel, Phys. Serp. 1837, ii. p. 274; Abbild. 1844, pl. xlv. figs. 19 & 20. 

Dipsas (Telescopus) egyptiaca, Riippell, Mus. Senck. i. 1845, p. 311. 

Telescopus obtusus, Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 1056; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 274; 
Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. nu. 1876, p. 120; F. Miller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, 
p- 152; Mocquard, Mém. Cent. Soc. Philom. 1888, p. 133*. 

Dipsas (Telescopus) obtusus, Boettger, Zool. Anz. 1893, no. 416, p. 119. 

Dipsas obtusa, Werner, Verb. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlv. 1895, p. 193 ; Tornier, Kriechth. Deutsch- 
Ost-Afr. 1897, p. 84. 

Tarbophis obtusus, Blgr. Ann, Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xv. (xxxv.) 1895, p. 15 ; Anderson, Proc. Zool. 
Soe. 1895, p. 658; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 553; op. cit. (2) 
Xvil. (xxxvil.) 1896-97, p. 20 & p. 279; Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1896, p. 52. 

Tarbophis dhara, Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 108. 

1 ¢. Beltim. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Sir J. G. Rogers, D.S.O., K.C.M.G. 

1 ¢. Mahallet el Kebir. George Kent, Esq. 

4, adol. and juv. Margin of desert, Gizeh. 

TY 9 andJjuv. Telel Amarna. Professor Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 

J juv. Tel el Amarna. 

ljuv. Assuan. Brigadier-General D. F. Lewis. 


Head very distinct from the neck ; snout short, broad, and rounded. Rostral broader 
than high, only slightly visible from above; internasals somewhat broader than long, 
equalling about two-thirds of the length of the prefrontals; prefrontals little more 
than one-half the length of the frontal; frontal about one-third longer than the 
distance between its anterior border and the end of the snout, its extreme breadth 
falling short of its length by about one-fourth, sides more or less concave, generally 
more or less in contact with the preocular, but sometimes excluded from it; parictals 
usually longer than the frontal, longer than broad, their breadth equalling about two- 
thirds of their length ; occasionally a small shield behind them; nasal divided; loreal 
about twice as long as deep; one preocular; two postoculars ; temporals 242, 2+3, 
and 3+35, and rarely and asymmetrically 14+2, 2+4, or 3+4. Generally 10 upper 
labials, not unfrequently 9, rarely 11; usually the 4th, 5th, and 6th entering the orbit, 
occasionally the 3rd, 4th, and 5th, and rarely the 4th and Sth, and the 5th, 6th, and 7th. 
Chin-shields small; anterior pair much the larger, in contact with three to five labials ; 
posterior pair scale-like, widely apart. 21 to 23 scales round the body, rarely 19. 
203-274 ventrals ; anal divided or single; 66-81 subcaudals. 

General colour uniform purplish brown er greyish brown, or marked more or 
less obscurely with numerous narrow, cross, brown markings, becoming indistinct 

202 


284 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


posteriorly, and separated from each other by narrow pale interspaces or lines ; upper 
labials sometimes slightly orange-yellow with dark margins ; underparts pure white. 

The largest adult male from Egypt is 1105 millim. long, of which the tail forms 
170 millim. 

It is distributed over the Nile valley from near the Mediterranean to Sennaar, and 
is also present in Somaliland and Eritrea. 

This species is generally found on the margin of the desert. It frequents houses. 

IT removed an entire Wotacilla alba, Linn., from the stomach of one of these snakes. 

In Egypt it is called 1c .) = abw uyun=the father of eyes; and it was once 
known in scientific literature as ‘‘ Telescopus,” owing to the prominence of its eyes. 

Forskal in his journey through El Yemen, the most southern province of Arabia on 
the littoral of the Red Sea, obtained a snake he described as C. dhara, which undoubtedly 
belongs to this genus. Unfortunately he gave no information regarding the condition 
of its anal, nor did he mention the number of scales round its body. Reuss, in 1554, 
described the present species, which is evidently closely allied to C. dhara, Forskal, 
from a specimen obtained in Egypt by Riippell. I have examined the type in the 
Frankfort Museum. It has 268 ventrals, a divided anal, 74 subcaudals, and 23 rows 
of scales round its body. In 1895, I described from Eastern Arabia another species, 
T. gquentheri, characterized by 21 (or 19, E. Africa) rows of scales across the body, 
205-274 ventrals, an undivided anal, and 69-75 subcaudals, or 110 (Usambara). Since 
then I have received from Medina a specimen with all the characters of Tarbophis 
obtusus, 7. €. 23 rows of scales and a divided anal. As the two species are thus present 
in Arabia, it is impossible to say which corresponds to C. dhara, Forskal. It is worthy 
of note that the snake in the Stuttgart Museum figured by Jan! as Telescopus obtusus 
has an undivided anal and came from Egypt. Snakes corresponding to those from 
Eastern Arabia (i. e. 7. guentheri) are found at Jerusalem ?, and at Ngatana, E. Africa °. 

In the following table I have registered a few details in the arrangement of the head-. 
shields of all the species of the genus, the number of the ventrals and subcaudals, the 
character of their anals, and the number of scales round their bodies. It will be seen 
wherein 7’. obtusus and T. guentheri differ from one another. 

If the specimen from Somaliland with only 213 ventrals has been correctly deter- 
mined, the variation in the number of the ventrals is very great, as one Egyptian snake 
has as many as 272 shields. ‘The same remark is also even more called for in the case 
of T. guentheri, as a representative of that species at Ngatana, British East Africa, has 
only 205 ventrals, whereas at Maskat, in Arabia, the ventrals rise to 274, thus giving a 
variation of 69 shields. It would seem that its north-eastward range, from Negatana 
to Maskat, is characterized by a gradual increase in the number of the ventrals. 


 Teon. Gén. livr. 88, 1871, pl. i. fig. 4. 
* Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 1896, xlvi. p. 361. 
* Bigr. Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, p. 52. 


TARBOPHIS OBTUSUS. 285 


Measurements (in millim.) of 51 specimens of Tarbophis and details of variation in 
the different species. 


Teel Tan ik. Upper | Labials lee Pre- eee Postel atame |l Soe 
Sex. | Jenath, | Tail. trals.{4281-| dais, | Scales. | labials. aes ae cote cour Got porala, | sals, Locality. 
or bars. frontal. 
Loreal entering the orbital margin. 
T. savignyi, Boulenger. 
Q | 475 | 67(174/1/1{51{ 19 | 8 |3,4,5) 23 11 | B.C.| 2 | 248) 1 | Jerusalem. 
ay. e221 esa ple7S) IVINS) 19a Beni3y455)/meS0) al ietey| Basson ls244 lea x 
3 | 460 | 667187| 1/1] ..| 19 |.8 |3,4,5} 28 | 1 | B.C.) 2 | 242) 1 | Mount Tabor. 
Juv. 253] 35119011/11 53] 19 | 8 |3,4,5| 25 | 1|B.C.| 2 | 244] 1 |Lebanon. 
T. fallax, Fleischmann. 
g$ | 565] 91/186/1/1|58] 19 | 7 |3)4,5| 44 | 1 2 |e 3t3| 1 |Beirat. 
g | 770 |112/194/1/1] .. | 19 3 (G45) GB |i} G |e mele 1 | Dalmatia. 
Q | 545] 77|199/1/1/ 48) 19 | 8 |8,4,5/ 45 | 1) BO) 2 |Reta 1 : 
Tom| 266 || 7169) iy |e2 | 1] || 8 [25 2. 12 Ce keel on 5 
@ | 500 ISVs. | Bl | 8 |B4S) 2o | 2 [1 Oi S eves wt lyon, 
g | 860 |120/204/1/1/50] 19 | 8 |3,4,5| 47 | 1 | B.C] 2 | 2+2] 1 |Dalmatia. 
ee ene O5N | O3)| 2044 1/0/1555 TONN| Sou a4y 55 2ey i TeneBs Cal 2 e\h2-t2 1 a 5 
@ | 85 || Sloane | © || S [B46] so | 2 |B) eo Raa x 
Q | 615] 88/206/1/1/ 52] 19 | 8 |3,4,5| 44 | 1 |B.C./ 2 | 244] 1 |Zara. 
g | 600| 94/206/1/1]) 56] 19 | 8 |3,4,5) 59 | 1 BE) 9 | 243] 1 | Dalmatia. 
2 | 640)| 95207 1/1/52) 19 | 8 |3,45| 48 | 1 | Bec) 2 heii) 1 " 
@ | 685} 98/208/1/1/ 55] 19 | 8 |3,4,5] 43 | 1 | B.C] 2 | 243] 1 |Cerigo Is. 
Q |- 615 |105/208/1/1] 66 | 21 | 8 |3,4,5] 45 | 1/B.c.| 2 mous 1 | Cyprus. 
Q | 202] POA YP |) || GS epee al FR | a | ehh) 2 | EB a pera, 
T. iberus, Zichwald. 
3 | Be, ace 213| 1 |e 19 | vs | ba petri Pea lene tee | .. | gemi- | Evlalh, Trans- 
caucasia. 
T. rhinopoma, Blanford. 
g | 1018 }160]}268} 1 | 77| 23 | 10 |4,5,6) 65 | 1 | B.C] 2 | 343 | 1 |Karman, Per- 
Juv.| 491 | 75}280] 1 | 82} 93 9 |4,5,6 $5 1 |) BY Ce) |) 2 ml 1 Sind, 


286 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Labial No. of a Relation Bete 
Total | py.) | Ven- Cau- Upper || dark Bee7) of raze |08'| ‘Mem- || Na- ‘ 
SB Tenet Hall trals. ua ale Seale labinls vive ee ee powers rae saree, sals. ene 
or bars. frontal. 
Loreal excluded from the orbital murgin. 
| T. variegatus, Reinhardt. 
g | 615 |100|218|11| 64) 19 | 7 | 2% | 26 | 1 |B. Ex| 8 | 243] 2 | West Africa. 
to 
a || FO) Pann lm | 3 | oS) a | a [ee eo) ae} el. + 
T. semiannulatus, Smith. 
g | 656 294) 1/1 19 8 |3,4,5| 24 ) 1 |B.Ex.| 2 | 2+2] 2 |Loanda, W. 
Bas Africa. 
@ | 835 |122|224|1/1| 64 | 19 8 |8,4,5 1 |B.Ex.| 2 | 775 | 2 | Nyassa. 
@ | 675 |113|224|1/1| 73 | 19 8 |3,4,5 1 |B.Ex.| 2 | 243] 2 |Mombassa. 
to 
g | 415 | 57/225/1/1| 58) 19 § (8,46 1 |B.Ex.| 2 | 242] 2 | Nyassa. 
745 298 | 1/1 19 8 |84,6 1 |/B.Ex.) 2 | 243 2 | Tanganyika. 
2 gany 
| 726 |117|230|1/1] 63 | 19 8 |3,4,5| 34 | 1 |B.Bx.| 2 | 248] 2 | Coast of Zan- 
. 
| zibar. 
; T. obtusus, Reuss. 
6 || 2] osloe|aa| a) 22 |) SF leer 1 | B.C. | 2 | 2438] 2 |Somaliland. 
@ | 968 |140/246/1/1| 72| 28 | 10 |4,5,6| , Lf 1D 2 Be Srcay 2 |Pidesaat, 
3 | 845 |123/253/1/1|260| 23 EB Medina. 
Juv.) 305 | 49|257|1/1| 79) 23 | 10 |4,5,6) se | 1] 0 | 2 | 248) 2 |Gizeh. 
3 
Te) 68a || “G)Psa Al) || 28 |) WO 45,6) Be | a | 2S | 2 | 228) 2 i 
b 
Juv 390 | 56/258|1/1| 70| 23 | 10 |4,5,6| 22 | 1 |B.C.| 2 | 248 | © |TelelAmama. 
| a5 244 
Exes 
o | 840 |125/260/1/1|70| 23 | 10 |4,5,6| 32 | 1 | B.C.| 2 | 2+8| 2 |Mahallet el 
| 22 Kebir. 
Her.| 505 | 80/262|1/1| 77 | 23 | 10 |4,5,6| 22 |1| 0 | 2 | 2+3| 2 |Gizeh. 
32 
o | 840 |130]263|1/1] 75] 28 | 10 |F eg] 2 | 1) B.C] 2 | 2+4) 2 |Beltim. 
| 2% 
Juv 435 | 69/263/1/1/81| 28 | 10 |4,5,6) Sg | 1 | © | % | 248] 2 | Assuan. 
Juv| 343 | 51/264) 1/1| 66 | 23 | 10 |4,5,6| Fs | 1 | B.C.| 2 | 3+3] 2 |TelelAmarna. 
Sip 
Juv.| 396 | 55/266|1/1| 67] 23 | 10 |4,5,6| &7 | 1 | C | 2 | 243] 2 |Gizen. 
a 
g | 1105 |170)271|1/1| 75| 23 | 10 |4,5,6| & 1 | B.C.| 2 | 2+3| 2 |Epypt. 
| Lo 
@ | 1103 |161]272|1/1| 72| 23 | 10 |4,5,6 1] ©. | 2 |R8t3| 2 |WelelAmarna. 


TARBOPHIS OBTUSUS. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


| Taba) No. of ® Relation en 
| abials |} dark re-| of preae- | Post- : 
Sex. | Total | paiy,| Ven- Anal.) Cau-| Seales, ueper entering} aca ocu- ane ocu- | Lem- | Na- Locality. 
length. trals. dals, abials. | eye, spots | Jars. fin lars, | Porals. | sals. 
or bars. frontal. 
| 
T. guentheri, Anderson. 

| 
| ¢ | 645 /120/205/ 1 |72| 19 | Ro [3,4,5|/e= | 1 |B.Ex.| 2 | 24+2].2 |Ngatona. 

OH 

mo} 
223) 1 |110) 19 ara Usambara 
| Ae ( Werner). 
3 987 |160|235| 1 | 66) 21 ) | 3,455) Se 1 |B. Ex.| 2 | 2+3 | 2 | Lahej, Aden. 

| aa 
| 3 
| @ 955 |147)236] 1 | 69 | 21 9 |3,4,5/3.8 1 |B.Ex.| 2 | 2+2' 1 |Hadramut. 
| = 
| Lae 
1@ | G2 [lO e335) 2 i mM | © TRea4Ss | meee eae] a 
| ’ 25 

a5 

@ | Col 155/220) 1 | | ol | A Beer as | 2 [Rape 2 ere | i |Stertan 

| : a ne s5y Othman. 
| 3 695 |110)264) 1 | 69 | 21 9 [p4a5|/as2| 1 |B.Ex.| 2 | 242) 1 | Maskat. 
|  |3 33 
| @ | 850 }127\274] 1 | 67 | 21 ) (bela >| D1 |e B | O22 | a H 


Analysis of that portion of the foregoing Table which refers to T. obtusus, Reuss. 


Largest male 1105 millim. Largest female 1103 millim. 


Highest number of ventrals 272 9. 


50 Ps subecaudals 81 juv. 


Lowest number of ventrals 213 Ss. 
subeaudals 66 juy. 


” bk) 
Range of ventrals 213-272 = 59. 

3 caudals 66=81) = 15! 
Lowest number of scales 19. 
Highest ep 1 wb 
Range of scales 4, 


Tel el Amarna. 


Assuan. 


Somaliland. 


Tel el Amarna. 


Negatana, E. Africa. 
Egypt and N.W. Arabia. 


Another genus of this subfamily is represented at Sennaar by Leptodira hotambeia, 
Laur., a species present in Senegambia, Eritrea, and East Africa, and distributed 


southwards to the Cape of Good Hope. 


288 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


C@:LOPELTIS. 
Celopeltis, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 189. 


Head distinct from the neck; snout rather acute ; canthus rostralis present ; supra- 
ocular strong, projecting beyond the eye; loreal more or less quadrate; frontal long 
and narrow; pupil round; nostril in single or divided shield; scales smooth, with 
apical pits, in 17 or 191 rows, longitudinal mesial line more or less concave; ventrals 
rounded ; subcaudals double; 10 to 17 subequal maxillary teeth, separated posteriorly 
from one or two terminal long grooved fangs; six or seven anterior maxillary teeth, 
much enlarged, but decreasing in length about the fifth, and followed by about 17 small 
teeth, diminishing in size from before backwards. 


C. monspessulana has been shown by Peracca and Deregibus ? to be furnished with 
a well-developed poison-gland that lies behind the eye, corresponding in position to 
the fifth, sixth, and seventh upper labials, and placed in direct relation with the very 
large grooved fang situated below the posterior border of the eye. Their experiments 
proved that the bite of Celopeltis is fatal to birds, lizards, and frogs, but that the 
grooved tooth must remain in the wound for one or two minutes to produce such a 
result. Jourdan *, who has experimented with small mammals, states that the venom 
of Celopeltis has an activity comparable to that of the viper. He says that if due 
precautions are taken that a limb be bitten by the hinder grooved tooth the victims 
died very rapidly. 


CGLOPELTIS MONSPESSULANA, Hermann. (Plate XX XVII. fig. 4.) 


? Coluber hannasch asued, Forskal, Descr. Anim. 1775, pp. viii et 15. 

Coluber monspessulanus, Hermann, Obs. Zool. i. 1804, p. 283; Dugés, Ann. Sc. Nat. (2) iii. 1835, 
p- 137, pl. v. B, figs. 1-6; de Betta, Cat. Syst., sect. i. Rept. Europ. 1853, p. 20. 

Coulewwre, Savigny, Descr. de ’Kgypte, Hist. Nat., Suppl. pl. Rept. pl. v. (1812) figs. 21-22 
& 31-32. 

Coluber (Natrix) monspessulanus, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 130. 

Natrix lacertina, Wagler. Spix, Nov. Sp. Serp. Brasil. 1824, p. 18, pl. 5. 

Coluber neumayeri, Fitz. Neue Class. Rept. 1826, p. 57. 

Coluber rupestris, Risso, Hist. Nat. Eur. Mérid. iii. 1826, p. 91. 

Malpolon lacertinus, Fitz. Neue Class. Rept. 1826, p. 59. 

Coluber esculapii, Dugés, Ann. Sc. Nat. xii. 1827, p. 394, pl. xlvi. fig. 17 ; Gervais, op. cit. (2) vi. 
1836, p. 312. 


* Boettger records 20. 
* Giorn. R. Ac. Med. Torino, 6 June, 1883; Biol. Centralb. iv. 1885; Arch. Ital. Biol. vy. 1885. 
* Comptes Rendus Ae. Se. exviii. 1894. 


C@LOPELTIS MONSPESSULANA. 289 


La Couleuvre maillée, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, Descr. de ’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. 1827, p. 147 (not 
pl. vil. fig. 6). 

Coluber insignitus, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, Descr. de ’Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. 1827, p. 151. 

Psammophis lacertina, Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 526; Schlegel, Phys. Serp. ii. 1837, p. 203, pl. vill. 
figs. 1-3; Wagner’s Reisen in Alg. iii. 1841, p. 131. 

Celopeltis lacertina, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 189; Hichw. Faun. Casp.-Cauc. 1841, p. 122; 
Nouv. Mém. Soc. Nat. Mose. vii. 1842, p. 154; Fitz. Syst. Rept. 1843, p. 26; Guichenot, 
Explor. Se. Alg., Rept. 1850, p. 23; Giinther, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 188; Proc. 
Zool. Soc. 1879, p. 741; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p.67; op. cit. 
(vii.) xxi. no. 4, 1873, p. 179; Schreib. Herp. Europ. 1875, p. 221, fig.; Blanford, East. Persia, 
Zool. ii. 1876, p. 424; Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. ii. 1876, p. 119; Boettger, Zeitsch. ges. 
Nat. (Giebel) xlix. 1877, p. 287; Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1879, no. 3, p.47; Peters, 
Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 8308; Blanford, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 680; Boettger, Abh. Senck. 
Ges. xiii. 1883, p. 103; Tristram, West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 145, pl. xiv. ; Boettger, 
Kobelt’s Reiseerin. Alg. u. Tunis, 1885, p. 462; Miller, Verh. naturf. Ges. Basel, vil. 1885, 
p- 687; op. cit. viii. 1887, p. 271; Blgr. Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) iii. 1889, p. 306; Trans. Zool. 
Soe. xiii. 1891, p. 151; Hart, Faun. Flor. Sinai &. 1891, p. 210; Sclater, Snakes Ind. Mus. 
1891, p. 49; Konig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, p. 24; Tomasini, Wissensch. Mitth. 
Bosnieu u. Herz. ii. 1894, p. 650; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliii. (1893) 1894, 
p- 355 ; op. cit. xliv. (1894) 1895, p. 85; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 122 ; 
Ferreira, Jorn. Ac. Sci. Lisboa, (2) iv. 1895, no. 13, p. 47; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. 
Wien, xiv. 1895, p. 233 ; Boettger, op. cit. xlvi. 1896, p. 279; Bocage, Jorn. Ac. Sc. Lisboa, 
(2) iv. no. 14, 1896, p. 79; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom., Zool. v. 1896, p. 38. 

Rhabdodon fuscus, Fleischmann, Dalmat. Noy. Serp. Gen. 1831, p. 26, pl. 2. 

Coluber vermiculatus, Ménétr. Cat. Rais. Zool. 1832, p. 72. 

Coluber flecuosus, Fisch. de Waldh. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mose. iv. 1832, p. 574. 

Celopeltis monspessulana, Ranzani, Nov. Comment. Ac. Sc. Bonon. ii. 1836, p. 229, pl. x.; Bonap. 
Icon. Faun. Ital. 1838, pl. (no number); Mem. Ac. Sc. Torino, (2) ii. 1839, p. 429; Bedriaga, 
Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1881, part 2, p. 311; Boettger, Sitzb. Ak. Berl. 1888, p.177; Ber. Senck. 
nat. Ges. 1888-89, p. 272; Bedriaga, Instituto, xxxviii. 1890, p. 186 ; Camerano, Mon. Ofid. 
Ital., Colubr. 1891, p. 5, pl. ii. figs. 12 & 18 ; Carruccio, Boll. Soc. Rom., Zool. i. 1892, p. 42 ; 
Kénig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, p. 24; Ferreira, Jorn. Ac. Se. Lisboa, (2) iv. 1895, 
no. 13, p. 42; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. ii. 1896, p. 141; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 
1896, p. 108. 

Bothriophis distinctus, Kichw. Reise Kasp. M. u. Kauk. ii. 1837, p. 748. 

Coluber monspessulana, var. newmayeri, Bonap. Icon. Faun. Ital. 1838. 

Celopeltis vermiculata, Hichwald, Faun. Casp.-Cauc. 1841, p. 123; Nov. Mém. Soc. Nat. Mose. vii. 
1842, p. 155, pl. xxix. figs. 1 & 2. 

Coluber monspeliensis, Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 205. 

Celopeltis insignitus, part., Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 1180; Jan, Icon. Gén. livr. 34, Mars 1870, 
pl. i. figs. 2 & 3, et livr. 50, pl. iv. figs. 22-24 (skull). 


1g andl 9. Maryut District. 
1 g¢. Alexandria (suburbs). 
1g. Mandara. Dr. Walter Innes. 


bo 
bac} 


290 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Head moderately long, rather deeply concave in the mesial line from before backwards ; 
canthus rostralis prominent, continuous with an outwardly projecting supraocular ; 
rostral slightly broader than high or as high as broad, slightly visible from above; 
internasals much smaller than the prefrontals, their suture less than one-half of the 
length of the suture between the prefrontals; frontal long and narrow, considerably 
exceeding the distance between its anterior border and the tip of the snout, and as 
long as the parietal, and its greatest breadth less than one-half of its length; parietals 
longer than broad, posterior borders usually rounded; two loreals, rarely one, the 
anterior the smaller, resting on the second and third labials; one preocular, entering 
largely on to the upper surface of the head, broadly in contact with the frontal ; two 
postoculars, rarely three; temporals 23 or 2+4, anterior pair rather large; 8 upper 
labials, the fourth and fifth entering the orbit, or rarely 9, with the fifth and sixth in 
the orbit; two pairs of chin-shields of nearly equal size, but the posterior pair the 
larger, anterior pair in contact with 4 or 5 labials. Scales in 17 to 19 rows, rarely 20, 
longitudinal mesial line more or less feebly concave. 160-189 ventrals; anal 1/1; 
subcaudals 68-102. 

Pale yellowish olive-brown above, with four broken lines of black spots, each about 
the size of a scale, at intervals of one or two scales, all the scales being more or less 
margined with yellowish white. Between the upper lines of spots there are connecting 
narrow, irregular, not well-defined, whitish cross-bands, which disappear on the hinder 
part of the body. Ventrals and subcaudals yellowish, finely punctulated with black 
and marked with large yellowish spots; the first 30 or 40 ventrals almost brick-red, 
punctulated and tending to form a mesial line. Upper surface of head marbled brown 
and yellow. Fully-grown individuals uniform, almost blackish, brown above and 
yellowish or yellowish green below, or spotted above here and there with obscure 
isolated dark brown spots,.some of the margins of the scales, especially those of the 
sides, with whitish spots ; sides of the head with a few yellow spots or markings. 

It attains to 1820 millim., of which the tail measures 355 millim. 

It appears to be confined to the seaward portion of the delta, and Strauch remarks 
that in Algeria he found it only near the coast. It is not at all uncommon. I have 
found it only in the semi-arid land outside Alexandria, and on the sandy and dry semi- 
cultivated land of the Maryut District. 

This species is present in North Africa, from the delta of the Nile to Morocco, and 
it has recently been recorded from Portuguese Guinea. It occurs around the Medi- 
terranean 1, from Spain and Portugal to Palestine, the Sinaitic Peninsula and Arabia, 
also in the islands of Cyprus, Chios, and Lampedusa (Florence Museum), and extends 
to the Caucasus and to Persia. 

It lives on small mammals, birds, and lizards. It has the reputation of being fierce 
and irascible, but the four specimens I captured did not attempt to defend themselves 


’ Tt has recently been recorded from the Roman province of Italy. 


CCELOPELTIS MONSPESSULANA. 291 


except by making every effort to escape. The Bedouins who were with me when I 
captured them seemed to dread this snake as much as they do the cobras, and asserted 
that its bite was fatal. 

I have not been able to ascertain its native name beyond this: that the two 
Bedouin youths who used to accompany me in searching for snakes, when they saw a 
large black example of this species shouted out oy) (sir =hanash aswad = “black 
snake,” expressing great dread of it. Forskal mentions a snake under this name as 
harmless. 


Measurements &c. (in millim.) of C. monspessulana, Hermann. 


Labials Relation of 

Total +) | Ven- Cau-| « Upper at Pre- aa sa) Eost- Tem- | Na- ‘ . 
Res length. Hob cals aa dals. Seales: Taba Beane oculars. ee oculars. pore aie, oneal i nccaay 
@ | 942 |265/170/1/1| 93 | 19 | 8 |4@5]/ 1 | Bo. | 2 | 243/23) © | Maryut 

District. 

3 | 1100 | 292)171) 1/1} 91 19 8 4&5 1 B.C. 2 2+3] 1 2 3 
oi 496 |126]174} 1/1 |101 19 8 4&5 i B.C. 2 243] 1 2 5 
3 | 1235 |312)177) 1/1 | 94 19 8 4&5 1 B.C. 2 243) 1 2 | Alexandria. 
3 | 1143 | 290}170) 1/1 | 93 19 8 4&5 1 B.C. 2 2+3) 1 2 | Mandara. 


Two figures of this snake appear in the ‘ Descript. de Veypte.’ One (Suppl. pl. v. 
figs. 31 & 32) is a very fine figure of an adult of the uniform type of coloration; the 
second (Suppl. pl. v. figs. 21 & 22) is an equally good representation of a half-grown 
individual. Neither of these figures was dealt with by Is. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, nor 
were they identified by Audouin beyond being designated by him “ Couleuvres.” 

The description of the snake La Couleuvre maillée, so called because the black spots 
that ornament its back have been compared to the spots on a young partridge, was 
drawn up from a specimen. Is. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire linked with his description the 
poor figure of a snake, fig. 6, pl. vii.; this snake he called C. insignitus. Dumeéril and 
Bibron, accepting Is. Geoffroy’s identification of his snake with the drawing, quote the 
latter as an illustration of C. monspessulana. This I cannot accept, as it appears to 
me, after a careful study of the figure in question, that Is. Geoffroy was really dealing 
with the two species, his specimen being C. monspessulana, and the figure C. moilensis. 
The drawing does not depict the concave head of the former species, but the shorter 


* On the left side the nasal is broken up into 3 shields, and the supranasal forms the upper border of the 
nostril. On the right side the nasal is broken up into 3 shields, but only two portions enter into the forma- 
tion of the nostril, the lower detached portion, resting on the rostral and on the first and second labials, being 
excluded. The supranasal and prefrontal define the anterior and upper borders of the nostril. 

2P2 


292 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


and forwardly convex head of the latter. The way the colour-markings are represented 
on fig. 6, pl. vii., is not that of C. monspessulana, but that of C. moilensis. The large 
spot between the parietals and the angles of the mouth, so characteristic of the latter 
species and never present in the former, is portrayed, and the spot likewise that occurs 
a little way behind it. In C@. moilensis there is always more or less black at the upper 
and lower borders of the orbit—absent in C. monspessulana, but present in the drawing. 
The disposition of the spots also on the body is that of C. motlensis, and if the drawing 
I have given in the background of Plate XL., taken from an Egyptian specimen, be 
compared with the figure in the great French work, the practical identity of the two 
becomes apparent. Moreover, the somewhat short and broad scales as depicted are 
rather those of C. mvilensis than of C. monspessulana. 


C@LOPELTIS MOILENSIS, Reuss. (Plate XL.) 


La Couleuvre mailiée, Is. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, Descr. de l’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. 1827, pl. vii. 
fig. 6, not text. 

Coluber moilensis, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 142, pl. vii. figs. 1 a-d. 

Celopeltis lacertina, var., Riippell, Mus. Senck. ii. 1845, p. 310. 

Coluber insiynitus, part., Dum. & Bibr. vu. 1854, p. 1180. 

Celopeltis producta, Gerv. Mém. Ac. Montp. i. 1857, p. 512, pl. v. fig. 5; Strauch, Mém. 
Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 68; Jan. Icon. Gén. livr. 34, Mars 1870, pl. ii. fig. 2; 
Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 151; Anderson, Proce. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 20; Konig, 
Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, p. 24; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, 
p- 122; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliv. 1894, p. 85. 

Rhagerhis (Celopeltis) producta, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 275, fig. 3. 

Rhagerhis producta, Gasco, Viagg. in Kgitto, pt. 1. 1876, p. 120; F. Miller, Verh. naturf. Ges. 
Basel, vi. 1878, p. 610; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 308; Murray, Ann. N. H. (5) xiv. 
1884, p. 104; Sclater, Snakes Ind. Mus. 1891, p. 26. 

Celopeltis lacertina, var. moilensis, F. Miiller, Verh. naturf. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, p. 150. 

Celopeltis moilensis, Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 656; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, 
pp. 52 & 108; Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, p. 143. 


2 9. Lower Egypt. 

1 g. Abu Roash. Mrs. Anderson. 

2 ?. Suakin. Colonel Sir Charles Holled Smith, K.C.M.G., C.B. 
1 95) Dumur: 


Head moderately long, convex above from before backwards; canthus rostralis 
defined, continuous more or less with outwardly projecting supraocular ; rostral as 
broad as high, largely visible from above; internasals nearly as large as the prefrontals, 
and the suture nearly as long as that of the prefrontals; frontal long and narrow, 


» IDS “Val 


‘yseoy uqy ‘2 z -stq ‘uryens ‘és 1 
SSISNHTIOWN SILTAdOTWDO 


Q 


su 


ydAsy jo 


sopydoy 


CQ@LOPELTIS MOILENSIS. 293 


equalling or slightly exceeding the distance between its anterior border and the end of 
the snout, and as long as or a little longer than the parietals; its greatest breadth 
exceeds one-half of its length ; parietals longer than broad, posterior border more or less 
rounded ; one loreal resting on the second and third labials ; one preocular, occasionally 
divided, broadly excluded from contact with the frontal, rarely in contact; two or 
three postoculars ; temporals 243, 244, or 1+2; 8 upper labials rarely 7, the fourth 
and fifth entering the orbit; posterior pair of chin-shields the shorter, separated by 
two large and a few small scales; anterior pair in contact with four or five labials. 
Scales in 17 rows, very obscurely grooved. 157-176 ventrals ; anal 1/1; subcaudals 
48-73. 

General colour pale sandy yellowish or yellowish brown above, irregularly marked 
with brown or blackish spots, generally a vertical black bar through the eye, more or 
less defined and involving the margin of the supraocular and the fourth and fifth labials ; 
a large deep brown or blackish spot from the hinder half of each parietal to the angle 
of the mouth, with a narrow yellow or whitish area behind it, followed by another but 
smaller dark brown spot; underparts yellow, with a dark spot occasionally on the 
angles of the ventrals, and in some two lines of small dusky spots or brick-red spots 
along the ventrals. 

Attains to 1030 millim., of which the tail measures 195 millim. 

In Lower Egypt this species is found on the margin of the desert amid arid 
surroundings. At Suakin and Durrur, where it is not rare, it is found on the 
shrub-covered grassy plain. 

To the west it ranges to Algeria, to the south as far as Sennaar in the Egyptian 
Sudan. In Asia it is present in Arabia, Syria, and Western Persia. 

I have removed a Stenodactylus elegans and the remains of beetles from its stomach. 
The coleoptera had doubtless been introduced in the stomachs of its prey. 

The natives do not appear to have any name for it, and indeed, as pointed out 
by Gasco, they do not distinguish, in some cases, between it and Cerastes vipera, 
which it resembles in its general tint. 


294 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements (millim.) &c. of C. moilensis, Reuss. 


Relation 
Labials of prae- 
ay | Lotal +) | Ven- Oau- Upper A Pree- -g | Post- | Tem- i“ 
| Sex. | Tenet Taide) oye, Apel. ania Scales. Sa puietine eee cowl ae orale Nasals. | Loreal. Locality. 
frontal. 
3 445 | 85 |159| 1/1] 54] 17 8 |4&5 |e dae) 2) 243 1 1 Abu Roash. 
@ | 908 |152|169/1/1| 54| 17 | 8 |4&5| 1 |BEx| BS |oya| 1 1 | Suakin. 
| 2) Glo tes eA Yl Al) i || 8 AGS) 1 [Bes] | ieee) a al 5 
6 L,2 |L.2+8 
| Q | 1080 |195}173}1/1| 55 | 17 S AGG) i [eee oA ane il 1 | Durrur. 
Q 487 |129|176|1/1| 73 | 17 8 |}4&5] 1 |B.Ex 2 oats 1 1 Hadramut. 
é | 480 |180/170/1/1) 63) 17 | 8 |4&5| 1 |BEx) 2 (L248) 1 1 ie 
) 610 |189}176) 1/1) 53 | 17 8 |4&5 1 |B. Ex.| 3—3 | 2+3 1 1 | Aden. 
@ | 702 |154)157) 1/1] 55 | 17 8 |4&5] 1 |B.Ex.) 2-2) 244) ? ? | Lower Egypt. 
mK 6 rm . Hx. 2 
@ | 653 |117|166/1/1| 52] 17 | 8 |4&5/ 1 | RG lae2|Rots| 1 | 1 : 
Q | 671 |115)159} 1/1) 48 | 17 8 |4&5] 1 |B. Ex.) .. 40 1 1 | Duirat, Tunisia. 
v6 L.4&5 
GEE) | Ae L|| NGHL| yPG |) aly ASSPR ROR! iB] 6, | co | hi Peake er 
SH gs Wes |W W eae Pese Wece Was los Ih Soy | maa I veo Wi) am tiatiesii. 
(o} i .. |168} 1/1) 52) 17 Bn oe n0 ga fe a 56 .. | Bushire. 
ior: ers Sree (ele iG3 eli SO Mealy 50 56 aE a a ors a .. | Nubia. 


In the ninth specimen in the foregoing table, five of the ventrals behind the 
26th of the series are divided like subcaudals. In the umbilical region of snakes. a 
tendency to division of the plates is rarely present, but complete division of the ventrals 
in the mesial line so far anteriorly is an exceptional occurrence and worthy of record. 


“Ysvoy nqy ‘jiasaq jo usiepy “2 e-sny Suyyeng ‘s 1 BL 
TYYMOHOS SIHdOWNVSd 


“WO ea adésor jo sopydayy 


PSAMMOPHIS SCHOKARL. 295 


PSAMMOPHIS. 
Psammophis, Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 521. 


Body elongate and cylindrical ; tail long and tapered. Head distinct from the neck ; 
snout moderately long; loreal region more or less concave ; nostril between two or 
three plates (rarely a semidivided shield) ; frontal narrow and rather elongate ; loreal 
elongate; pupil round. Dorsal scales smooth, with apical pits, in 11 to 19 more or 
less oblique rows; ventrals rounded; anal divided or single. Maxillary teeth in three 
groups, those of the anterior group, 3 or 4 in number, separated by an interspace 
from one or two long fang-like teeth, followed by another interspace, the last group 
terminating in one or two long, strong, grooved fangs placed below the posterior border 
of the eye; mandibular teeth much enlarged anteriorly, followed by a long line of 
much smaller teeth, gradually diminishing in size posteriorly. 


PSAMMOPHIS scHOKARI, Forskal. (Plates XLI. & XLII.) 


Psammophis schokari, Blgr.' Cat. Snakes B. M. iii, 1896, p. 157; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, xvi. 
(axxvi.) 1896, p. 553; Anderson, Herp. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 53 & 108; Werner, Verh. 
zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlvii. 1897, p. 407. 

? Psammophis sibilans, Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom., Zool. v. 1896, p. 35. 


Ain Musa. ° 
Between Suez and Ismailia. 
Shaluf. 
Abbasiyeh. Major-General H. M. L. Rundle, D.S.O., C.M.G. 
Abu Roash. 
Gizeh. 
. Assuan. Brigadier-General D. F. Lewis. 
and1 @. Suakin Plain. Surgeon-Captain A. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
and 4 2. Suakin Plain. 

Tokar. 

Durrur. 

Island of Shadwan. Mr. John Strathearn. 

Ras Gharib. Mr. James Robertson. 

Berys, S. of Oasis of Khargeh. Major H. G. Lyons, R.E. 


ee ik OO i 
Oy +0 10 40 Oy OY OY OY OJ OY 10 GD; 10 


* Additional references:—Gmelin, Syst. Nat. Linn. i. 1788, p. 1115; Lacép. Quadr. Ovip. iii. 1789, p. 273; 
‘Daud. Rept. vi. 1803, p. 251; Shaw’s Gen. Zool. iii. 1802, p. 519; Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 547. Coluber 
(Natrix) schokari, Merrem, Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 1380. Psammophis punctatus, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 
1878, p. 207. ; 


296 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Rostral broader than high, but little visible on the upper surface of head; fronto- 
parietal region in some more or less concave; internasals rounded anteriorly, much 
shorter and less than half the size of the prefrontals ; frontal as long as or somewhat 
longer than the distance between its anterior border and the end of the snout, its least 
breadth equal to one-third or less of its length and to about one-half of its anterior 
breadth ; parietals as long as or a little shorter than the frontal, longer than broad, 
their posterior borders rounded or slightly divergent; two or three nasals, rarely one 
partially divided ; one long and narrow loreal; one preocular, sometimes partially or 
wholly divided, broadly in contact with the frontal, rarely excluded from it; two 
postoculars, exceptionally three; 9 upper labials, rarely 8 or 10, the fifth and sixth 
entering the orbital margin, exceptionally the fourth and fifth or the sixth and seventh. 
Anterior chin-shields broader but slightly shorter than the posterior pair, in contact 
with five labials. Scales in 17 rows, rarely 19. Ventrals 162-194; anal 1/1; sub- 
caudals 95-149. 

Either dorsally striped with longitudinal bands of brown and yellow, the stripes in 
some becoming broken up more or less into black spots, or uniformly coloured with 
or without spots. 

In the striped forms two dark brown bands, more or less margined with black, run 
from the nostril, through the eye and along the side of the body, to the extremity of 
the tail ; a similarly coloured band begins as a narrow line on the frontal and gradually 
widening on the nape passes backwards as a broad dersal band, about 5 scales in 
breadth, narrowing posteriorly and continued on to the tail to its extremity; the dorsal 
is separated from the dark lateral band of each side by a yellow or yellowish-orange 
band, broader than the lateral band and also prolonged on to the tail; under surface 
and one or more of the lateral scales of the body and the sides of the head whitish or 
yellowish white ; the outer portion of each ventral with two longitudinal parallel lines 
of blackish spots, the centre of the shields dusky yellowish brown speckled with 
reddish brown; sides of the head (labials) finely dotted with dark brown, more or less 
streaked with orange-brown ; under surface of the head with numerous dark brown 
small spots. 

In the longitudinally spotted forms the dorsal brown band is reduced to a chain of 
spots running backwards from each parietal along the body to the tail, and separated 
from each other about the middle of the body by five longitudinal lines of paler-coloured 
scales, each spot haying an interval of a scale before and behind it; the lateral dark line 
becomes pale, finely and irregularly spotted with black. A dark brown spot on the side 
of each ventral and continued on to the tail; two parallel lines of larger and more irregular 
spots internal to it, separated from each other on the anterior part of the body by a 
yellowish interspace, darker than the rest of the ventrals and becoming spotted as it is 
traced backwards, where it becomes faint. The markings on the head and on its under 


‘YPsiey yy JO siseQ jo yMog ‘skiag ‘pS 
TUVMOHOS SIHdOWNVSd - 


“IWIDSS At door jo sapndoyy 


v 7 an a _ = 
ane g 
¥ ai) v 
ay 2 
Hy H - 
a « . 
7 ve t 
i y 
PAs, i 
me: ; 
a " Z 0 
fr . 
j 
a | ; 
. 
— " 2 
tll ; 
7 - i) 
: rae 3 
i 
oe “ . 
q ca 
‘ Pat “ 
4 
i 
ae 
Hy 
iis 
¥ ete 
- j ‘ 
~ j 
m 
nae i 
. i a 
fi) 
© 
7 
ii 
am 
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o 
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ly , 
' 
; 
' 
1 
‘ = 
5 [ 


i 


As 


49 avs nt 


CG a, . 


1 


i ea eee 
Sie ae rye 


Cre 


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A ty 


uy 
ri 
i” aé 
- a 
dt 
F 
ear 
I pet 
A 
1 
L 
1 
a 


PSAMMOPHIS SCHOKARI. 297 


surface the same as in the striped forms. In others, the spots of the dorsal lines 
become nearly obsolete ; also every alternate scale along the mesial line of the back 
becomes paler than the surrounding scales, so that a vertebral chain of paler scales is 
present. In such forms the black innermost spots on the ventrals become fine 
longitudinal lines enclosing a broad dusky ashy space, prolonged to near the extremity 
of the tail, finely punctulated with minute blackish spots. The head-markings remain 
intact. 

In others the general colour may be pale greyish olive above without black spots 
feebly indicated, but with a tendency to form a pale dorsal streak here and there. 
In these forms the head-markings are practically obsolete, but a short narrow dark 
band is present behind the eye. Under surface of head immaculate. The spots on 
the angles of the ventrals very feebly marked, also the dark lines, but a broad yellowish 
band, more or less speckled at its margins, occupies the centre of the ventrals and is 
continued to the vent, the centre of the first few ventrals with a dark spot. In these 
uniformly coloured forms the scales are generally finely dotted with black, and snakes 
of this type of coloration are common in Lower Egypt. Some examples of this species 
(Island of Shadwan, Assuan, Oasis of Khargeh, and Khartum) are more or less rosy 
red or reddish brown, without any trace of markings except the line from the nostril to 
the eye and on the temporal region, and a few spots, all of which become pronounced 
reddish rosy. The ventrals become bright rosy red and the broad mesial band almost 
orange-red. 

The figures I have given of this species illustrate the extremes of colour-variation. 
On Plate XLI. there is a representation of the striped form, and in the background a 
figure of the uniformly greyish-coloured snake finely dotted with blackish, while in 
Plate XLII. the uniformly rufons variety from the Oasis of Khargeh is depicted. 
The striped variety with its modifications is especially well represented in the Suakin- 
Durrur district, where I have never observed snakes exactly corresponding to the greyish 
or yellowish-olive black-dotted form found in Lower Egypt, and also in Arabia, Persia, 
and Sind. 

The largest male has a total length of 1480 millim., of which the tail constitutes 
335 millim. 

This species is widely distributed over Northern Africa. It has been recorded from 
the south as far as Sennaar, and from Eritrea to the east. It is present in Syria, 
Arabia, and extends from Persia as far east as Sind. 

It is found in dry and semi-desert areas, and I have never met with it on the moist 
alluvial soil of the fields. In Lower Egypt it was generally found under stones on 
the margin of the desert, but on the plain of Suakin at the roots of bushes. 


© IFS 9- 


Its Arabic name is j.4.)| »l=abwu el suwyur=the father of stripes. The natives do 
not distinguish it from the next species, P. siddlans. 


bo 
& 


298 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


In P. sibilans the first three lateral rows of body-scales are larger than the other 
dorsal scales, while the fourth row is about one-half as broad as the first row; but in 
P. schokari there is not the same marked difference between the first and fourth row, 
and the scales generally are of more equal size as compared with those of P. stbdlans. 
In the latter also the oblique arrangement of the scales is more defined than in 
P. schokari, in which the scales are slightly more elongate. The uniformly rufous 
specimens from the island of Shadwan, Assuan, Khargeh, and Khartum, which at first 
sight look so remarkably distinct from the striped form, are undoubtedly most nearly 
allied to it, not only in the character of their scales, but also in the extent to which 
the rostral appears on the upper surface of the head. In P. sidilans the rostral becomes 
more visible, as it is higher than in P. schokari. The rufous snakes, such as those from 
Khargeh and Khartum, conform to the latter shape of rostral and are unquestionably 
only a variety of this species. With the exception of the individuals from the island 
of Shadwan and from Khartum, they have 17 rows of scales, but in these two there 
are 19 scales round the body. In view, however, of the similarity of these snakes 
to this species in the characters already indicated, much importance cannot be attached 
to a trifling variation of this kind. There is another point also in which the 
Khargeh snake differs from the other three rufous examples of P. schokari mentioned 
in the accompanying table, viz., in possessing 10 upper labials, 7. e., one labial 
more than usually occurs in this species, and two more than the normal number of 
P. sibilans. The additional labial is due to the division of one of the front labials 
and not to the addition of a labial posteriorly; consequently in this specimen the 
sixth and seventh labials enter the eye, a condition of the orbital margin found on 
one side of the head in the Khartum individual, which has only 9 upper labials 
and is unquestionably inseparable from the Khargeh specimen. In P. sibilans, with 
8 upper labials, the fourth and fifth generally enter the orbit; but I have met with a 
snake (see table) presenting these features, but at the same time distinctly referable tc 
P. schokari. In the specimen from Jerusalem figured by Jan (livr. 34, pl. iii. fig. 2) 
as P. sibilans, var. hierosolimitana, the fourth and fifth labials enter the orbital rim on 
the left side; but it will be noticed that the second labial is abnormally broad, probably 
due to the amalgamation of two shields, and, if so, fully accounting for the abnormality 
of the presence of the fourth and fifth labials below the eye. On the right side of the 
same figure another abnormal condition exists, brought about by the third labial 
having so encroached on the fourth, which, although present in the labial margin, 
is shut out from the orbital rim by the third labial being projected backwards into 
contact with the fifth. 

In 47 examples of this species there is only the afore-mentioned specimen from Gizeh 
in which the fourth and fifth labials enter the orbit on both sides of the head ; whereas 
in one from Dizak, Baluchistan, the fifth and sixth enter it on one side and the fourth 


PSAMMOPHIS SCHOKARI. 299 


Measurements (in millim.) &e. of P. schokari, Forskal, P. leithii, Giinth., and 
Taphrometopon lineolatum, Brandt. 


Labials | Relation of | Zemporals | Number 
Sex, | Ven- | Anals. |Caudals.| Scales.) UPPe™ | entering prroculars | 1 contact of Locality. 
trals. labials. | obit to frontal, | With post- mneals 
ay - oculars. ee 
| | | | | ae ose at EE 
P. schokari, Porskdl. 
@ || ize 2 17 9 5&6 B. C. 2 3 Sind. 
Juy.| 186 2 138 17 9 5&6 B.C. 2 3 Karachi. 
Juv.) 183 2 122 17 9 5&6 B.C. 2 2 Kandahar. 
Juy.| 185 2 17 9 5&6 B.C. 2 3 Helmand, Afghan- 
istan. 
194 2 126 iy 9 5 & 6 B. C. 1 3 Dizak, Balu- 
5&6 chistan. 
185 2 110 17 9 4&5 B. C. 2 3 wt 
3 | 194 2 Ne 17 9 5&6 |, C. 2 3 Hamun to Khusan, 
Afghanistan. 
¢ | 185 2 126 Nf 9 5&6 B.C. 2 3 a 3 
@ || 194 | Wal } Weer | az 9 5&6 B.C. 2 2 Jask, Persia. 
2 | 183 1/1 17 9 5&6 B. C. 2 2 . - 
@ | 185 2 129 17 9 5 & 6 B. C. 2 3 Maskat 
@ | 176 2 140 We 9 5&6 |. B.C. 2 2 s 
174 2 a0 17 9 5&6 B.C. 2 2) oe 
S |) Ly 2 141 7 9 5 & 6 B.C. 2 2 Hadramut. 
@ || Us |) ial a6 17 9 5&6 C. 2 2 Lahej, Aden. 
2 | 168 1/1 149 17 9 5 & 6 B.C. 2) 2 Shaikh Othman, 
Aden. 
@ | 179 2 103 | 17 9 5 & 6 B.C. 2 2 Moses Wells, Sina- 
itie Peninsula. 
GS | Wz 2 119 Wa 9 5 & 6 B. C. 2 2 Suez Canal between 
Ismailia & Suez. 
3 | 168 » 110 17 9 5&6 B.C. 2 2 Shaluf, near Suez. 
© | w/z 2 Ne 9 5&6 B. €. 2 2 Abbasiyeh, Cairo. 
3 | 176 2 123 17 9 5&6 B.C. 2 2 Abu Roash. 
3 | 175 2 118 17 9 5 &6 B.C. 2 2 Gizeh. 
go | 170 2 113 U7 9 5&6 B. C. 2) 2 - 


2Q 2 


300 


9% 40 1% & % G % 1 & & & 1 % 1% GB & 10 o | 


Anals. 


to wo wo bw 


bo bo bo bo bo to bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo 


bo 


bo 


Caudals. 


114 
114 
116 
111 


113 
105 
100 

93 
100 
100 


105 
106 
105 
96 
96 
97 
97 
96 
95 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Scales. 


Upper 
labials. 


o © O Ww 


H 
MW oO Ooo YDB DO OB OB OH OBO HO OH OO OO CO O© 


oOo cc 


Labials 
entering 
orbit, 


4&5 
5 & 6 
5&6 
5&6 
6&7 
5&6 
5 & 6 
5 & 6 
5&6 
5&6 
5 & 6 
5&6 
5&6 
5 & 6 
5&6 
5&6 
5 & 6 
5&6 
5&6 
5&6 


5 &6 


L.6&7 
R.5&6 


5&6 
5&6 


Relation of 
preoculars 
to frontals. 


B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
0 
0 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 


B.C. 
0 


Temporals 

in contact 

with post- 
oculars. 


oS © © Ho Ho Ow WH Ww WHO WO WW YH WH WY W HO WH WW W 


bo bo to 


bo 


Number 
of 
nasals, 


to bb 


Locality. 


Gizeh. 
Ras Gharib. 
1 


Island of Shadwan. 


Assuan. 


Oasis of Khargeh. 


Suakin. 


Tokar. 

Durrur. 
Khartum. 
Duirat, Tunisia. 


Biskra, Algeria. 


PSAMMOPHIS SCHOKARI. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


301 


Relation of 
preoculars 
to frontals. 


P. leithii, Giinth. 


| Labials 
Sex. | Ver~ | Anals. |Caudals,/ Scales, ce entering 
| 3 | 177 1 95 17 8 4&5 
| 2 | 179 1 92 |. 17 8 4&5 
| ce) 185 1 99 7/ 8 4&5 
| @ | 170 1 | 17 8 4&5 
Tapbrometopon 
| 6 181 2 87 17 9 4,5, &6 
[Her] 181 | 2 85 | 17 | 9 14,5, &6 
Her.) 178 2 74 / 9 |4,5,&6 
|Juv.| 180 | 2 SS ue Vaan ee OMe | ene 
‘aio 180 2 90 17 9 |4,5,&6 
@ | is | 2 7m | 17 | © |48,&6 
® || 17GB | 2 @ | 17 | © |45,&6 
| fof 194 2 98 17 9 |4,5,&6 
| 6 | 14 | 2 82 | 17 | 9 1|4,5,&6 
é || 7 | 2 go | 17/ 9 14,5,&6 


L. B.C. 
R.C. 


C. 
C. 
C. 


B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 
C. 
B.C. 
B.C. 


Temporals 

in contact 

with post- 
oculars. 


lineolatum, Brandt. 


2 


bo 


bo bw 


bo 


Number 
of 
nasals, 


Locality. 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


Sind. (Type.) 


Gwalior. 


Munro Kelat, 
Baluchistan. 


Ajmere. 


Chinas, Turkestan. 


Tirphul, Afghan- 
istan. 


Helmand, Afehan- 
istan. 


and fifth on the other. In the remaining specimens, excepting those from the Oasis of 
Khargeh and Khartum, the fifth and sixth are the labials that assist in defining the 


orbital rim. 


The nasals in this species are subject to variation. 


In one specimen from Suakin, 


although there are two nasals on each side, yet the arrangement is different in both. 
On the left side there is a suture immediately below the nostril and another 
immediately in front of it, so that one nasal is reduced to a small shield below and 
behind the opening and embraced by the main shield, the anterior one; on the 
In another specimen 


opposite side the shield is vertically divided through the nostril. 


302 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 
there is only one shield, divided only below the nostril. In the nasals of the Suakin 


snakes the loreal, so to speak, is projected into them, so that there is an emargination 
of the posterior border of the hinder nasal for its reception. 


Analysis of portion of table referring to P. schokari, Forskal. 


Ventrals. Subcaudals. 
177-194 110-138 Sind to Persia. 
168-185 129-149 Maskat, Hadramut, and Aden. 
168-179 103-119 Vicinity of Suez. 
173-177 113-123 Lower Egypt. 
192 116 Island of Shadwan. 
176 114 Ras Gharib. 
195 111 Assuan. 
188 113 Oasis of Khargeh. 
162-174 93-106 Suakin and Durrur. 
190 120 Khartum. 
179-183 119-131 Duirat and Biskra. 


Examples of this species from Aden have a greater number of subcaudals, and those 
from Suakin and Durrur a smaller number, than is present in those from other localities. 
I have included in the foregoing table, in order to bring out their differences, the 


two Asiatic species P. leithii and Taphrometopon lineolatum, which have not 
unfrequently been mistaken for P. schokart. 


PSAMMOPHIS SIBILANS, Linn. (Plate XLIII. and fig. 12 in text.) 
Serpens africana, Seba, Thes. ii. 1735, p. 57, tab. 56. fig. 4; Lacép. Serp. ii. 1789, p. 246, 
pl. xii. fig. 1. 
No. 30 Anguis scutis abd. CLIX vel CLX, sq. caud. C, Linn. Ameen. Ac. i. 1749, p. 302. 
Coluber sibilans, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. x. 1758, p. 222; part., Syst. Nat. 1. 1766, p. 383. 
Coluber moniliger, Daud. Hist. Rept. vii. 1803, p. 69. 
Joluber (Natriz) sibilans, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 114. 
Couleuvre, Savigny, Descr. de l’Hgypte, Rept. Suppl. pl. iv. (1818 ') figs. 51-5. 


La Couleuvre oreillard, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Deser. de VEgypte, Hist. Nat. i. 1827, p. 145, pl. viii. 
figs. 4-4!. 


Coluber auritus, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. op. cit. p. 151, pl. vii. figs. 4-4’, 
Psammophis sibilans, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, p. 161; id. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) 


* Although the fourth Suppl. plate of Reptiles bears the date 1813, no reference is made to it by 
Is. Geoff. St.-Hilaire, whose description of O. awritus was written after 1820, as is gleaned from the scattered 
references in his text to Merrem’s work before and after his account of C. auritus. 


In Merrem there is no 
reference under C. (1V.) sibilans to the ‘ Deser. de | Egypte.’ 


‘oued ‘yedtseqqy ‘2 
SNVIIGIS SIHAONWYSd 


“UTX ‘Id ‘ydA3q jo satydoy 


PSAMMOPHIS SIBILANS. 303 


XVi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 553; id. op. cit. xvii. (xxxvii.) 1896-97, p. 13 et p. 279; Ann, & Mag. 
N. H. (6) xix. 1897, p. 279; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 801; Bocage, Herpét. d’Angola et du 
Congo, 1895, p. 114; Jorn. Se. Lisboa, (2) iv. no. 14, 1896, pp. 78, 938, & 118; id. op. cit. 
no. 15, 1896, p. 177; Boettger, Zool. Anz. 1896, p. 119; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & 
Egypt, 1896, p. 108; Loénnberg, Bihang till K. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl. 22, Afd. iv. 
no. 1, 1896, p. 19; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Zool. Torino, xi. 1896, no. 255, p. 2, xii. 1897, 
no. 273, p. 3; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlvii. 1897, p. 400; Tornier, Kriechth. 
Deutsch-Ost-Afr. 1897, p. 82. 


6. Beltim. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Sir J. G. Rogers, D.S.O., K.C.M.G. 
3. Northern part of the Delta. J. R. Gibson, Esq. 

g andl @. Mahallet el Kebir. George Kent, Esq. 

6. Abbasiyeh. Major-General H. M. L. Rundle, D.S.O., C.M.G. 

s andl 2. Abu Roash. 

og and2 2. Gizeh. 

$6 and1 9. Fayum. 

g andl @. Minia. Major R. H. Brown, R.E., C.M.G. 

sg andl @. Telel Amarna. Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 

Q. Luxor. 


He wwwen eH = eS He 


Rostral as high or higher than broad, more visible from above than in the preceding 
species; internasals rounded anteriorly, half the size of the prefrontals; frontal as long 
as, or somewhat longer than, the distance between its anterior border and the end of 
the snout, its least breadth equal to one-third or less of its length, and to about one- 
half or more of its anterior breadth; parietals as long as, or little shorter than, the 
frontal, longer than broad, posteriorly somewhat narrowly rounded and slightly divergent. 
Two or three nasals; one long and narrow loreal; one preocular, either in contact 
with or excluded from the frontal; two or three postoculars; temporals 2+ 2, rarely 
2+3 or 343; eight upper labials, the fourth and fifth generally entering the orbit, 
and occasionally the fifth and sixth; anterior chin-shields broader, but slightly shorter, 
than the posterior pair, in contact with five labials. Scales in 17 rows. Ventrals 155- 
198; anal 1/1; subcaudals 90-116. 

Either longitudinally banded with brown and yellow, with or without a pale vertebral 
line and dark line on the angle of the ventrals, or uniformly coloured above, with or 
without the pale vertebral line and the dark line on the ventrals. 

In the banded forms there is a broad dorsal band of some tint of brown, its borders 
and the outlines of the scales lying within it margined with blackish; below this 
dorsal band a narrow yellow band with a broad lateral brownish band below it paler 
than the dorsal band, the scales in this band also more or less margined with black, 
and those of the line next the ventrals each usually with a black spot at the apex, but 
the lower halves of the scales of this row are yellowish like the ventrals. These bands 
become defined about the region of the twentieth ventral; the sides of the neck 
anterior to this are nearly of the same colour as the mesial dorsal band, and are 


304 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


traversed transversely obliquely forwards by a few narrow yellowish lateral lines, 
becoming most distinct anteriorly and on the temporal region, where they mark off one 
or two large dark brown patches which haye given rise to the term auritus applied to 
this species by Is. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire; one of these yellow lines crosses the posterior 
portion of the parietals, and another lies behind the eye, involving the postoculars. The 
preocular has a yellowish spot; upper labials bright yellow or with orange and dark 
spots; a yellow line traverses the canthus rostralis, at the anterior margin of which 
it sends an offshoot backwards along the sutures of the internasals and prefrontals to 
the frontal; lower labials yellow or spotted with bright orange. ‘This mesial 
yellow line into which the oblique lines pass is not unfrequently prolonged along 
the entire vertebral line of the snake to opposite the vent. The tail has the five 
principal bands usually well marked. The under surface from the chin backwards is 
generally rich yellow, frequently very light below the head and sometimes spotted 
with light orange; but the angles of the ventrals may or may not have a dark line 
along them. 

In the uniformly coloured snakes the upper surface may be either dark brown or 
pale greyish brown, without bands of any kind beyond a faint indication occasionally 
of the yellow narrow vertebral line. The scales in these forms are more or less 
margined with black, and the head-markings become very obscure, and the dark line 
along the sides of the ventrals may be found in some, absent in others. In Egypt 
snakes presenting these different colour-variations are present in one and the same 
locality; but the snake from Luxor is uniformly brownish above and yellow below, 
and the head-markings are indistinct, but in this respect it is resembled by snakes 
from Mahallet el Kebir in the delta and in Fayum. In the first of the last two 
localities snakes are met with of the striped character, the dark bands very strongly 
marked, and also the dark lateral line on the ventrals, but with the pale vertebral line, 
when present, represented only by an interrupted line of yellow spots, but generally 
one to each scale. Snakes presenting this form of coloration are found in the Nile 
valley as far south as Wadelai, at Kilimandjaro, and in tropical Africa as far west as 
Senegal. At Wadelai a type of coloration differing only in some details from the 
uniform type present at Mahallet el Kebir in the delta is also met with, and is also 
widely distributed over tropical Africa. It differs from the uniform type of coloration of 
the deltaic snakes, in which the first row of dorsal scales next the ventrals is yellowish, 
in having the lateral line of scales coloured like the rest of the upper surface, and 
in the ventrals, which are yellow in the Lower Egyptian snakes with a dark line, not 
unfrequently spotted with black, tending to form longitudinal lines. In the uniformly 
coloured deltaic snakes the lips are immaculate, whereas in the southern uniform type 
of coloration the upper lip is more or less spotted. The head-markings in both are 
indistinct. 

It attains to 1205 millim. in length, of which the tail forms 390 millim. 


PSAMMOPHIS SIBILANS. 


305 


Measurements (millim.) &e. of P. sibilans, Linn. 


Sen Total Ven- Anal,| Cau- 


fe) Ave) (aly 
io} 
S 
i} 

he 2 
o> 
S 
— 
o> 
or 
= 
— 
= 


655 | 210) 168] 1/1 | 109 


Oy 
pi 
S 
w 
or) 
i) 
wo 
(j=) 
H 
(or) 
aD 
— 
—, 
= 


1028 |296)167) 1/1] 91 
975 | 300) 164) 1/1} 108 


640 | 195) 165} 1/1 | 108 
460 |138) 173) 1/1 | 106 
855 | 265) 167} 1/1 | 109 
103 
845 | 270} 166] 1/1 | 109 
1205 | 390/167) 1/1 |116 


645 | .. |169/ 1/1 | 114 
1181 | 385] 166) 1/1 | 108 


aro) 3) yan) @ a) Gg) KO) KO) HL 
(6.2) 
rss 
(ss) 
bo 
Or 
cc 
— 
Or 
(Ne) 
= 
— 
= 


967 |322)172) 1/1 | 114 


Scales. 


Upper 
labials. 


Labials 
entering 
orbit. 


4&5 
4&5 
4&5 
4&5 
4&5 
4&5 
4&5 


L.5&6 
R.4&5 


4&5 
4&5 
4&5 
5 & 6 


Relation 
of pree- 
oculars to 
frontal. 


a 


eee Qeeeog @ 


SO ee 8&2 Qe © 


Temporals | Number 
in contact of 
with post-| nasals, 
oculars. 

2 2 

2 2 

2 2 

D) 2 

2 2 

D) 2 

2 L.1, R.2 

9 2 

D) 2 

2 L.3, RB. 2 

2 2 
L.3,R.2| 2 

2 2 

2 2 

2 2 

2 2 

2 2 

D) 2 

) 2 

2 2 


Locality. 


Beltim. 

Delta. 

Mahallet el Kebir. 
Abbasiyeh. 

Abu Roash. 


Minia. 
” 
” 


Tel el Amarna. 


” ” 


Luxor. 


This essentially African species is widely distributed over the continent, from Cape 
Guardafui to Cape Verd, southwards to the Zambesi and to Angola, and northwards 
along the Nile valley to the coast of the delta. 
in Egypt, and Gasco' justly says that in this respect it is on a par with Zamenis 
florulentus. It occasionally enters houses. 


It is one of the most common snakes 


‘ Viagg. in Egitto, pt. ii. 1876, p. 120. 


306 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


The ventrals vary in Eastern Africa from 155-198=43: in Western Africa (Senegal 
to Angola) from 157-181=24. The range of variation in the subcaudals in Eastern 
Africa is 90-116=26, and in Western Africa is 97-116=19. 

It will be observed from the foregoing table that it is almost invariably the case for 
the fourth and fifth labials to enter the orbital margin in this species, but that 
occasionally exceptions occur, and that in these instances it is the fifth and sixth 


Fig. 12. 


as 


Type of Coluber sibilans, Linn. (Upsala Museum.) 


labials that take the place of the former, accompanied by nine labials, as in 
P. schokari. 

The two species P. schokari and P. sibilans are closely allied, but at the same time 
are distinguished from each other by certain generally persistent characters. Thus the 
rostral of the first is broader than high, and that of the second usually higher than broad. 
P. schokari has nine upper labials; P. stbi/ans eight. In the former, the fifth and 
sixth upper labials enter the orbit, in the latter the fourth and fifth. As a rule, the 
preocular in P. schokari is broadly in contact with the frontal, while in the second these 
shields are generally not in contact, or if they do touch, they do so only to a yery 


slight extent. 


PSAMMOPHIS SIBILANS. 307 


I am indebted to the courtesy of Professor Lénnberg for the opportunity to give the 
foregoing figure (fig. 12) of the type of this species preserved in the Museum at 
Upsala. 

It was first described by Linneus, in 1749, in the account he gave of the contents of 
the Museum of King Adolphus Frederick in the first volume of the ‘Ameen. Ac.’ The 
specimen there appears as “30 Anguis scutis abdominalibus CLX, squamis cau- 
dalibus C” (p. 3021), but in the more detailed account of the specimen that follows it 
is stated to have had 160 or 159 ventrals. Mr. Smit counted the ventrals and sub- 
caudals at my request, and he informs me that two countings of the former yielded 159, 
and two of the latter 100. The anal is divided, and it may possibly be this that led 
Linneus to put down the ventrals at 160, while he says at the same time “ vel 159.” 
There are 17 rows of scales on the body. The total length of the specimen is 950 millim., 
of which the tail forms 305 millim. ‘The bottle containing the specimen, which 
Prof. Einar Lénnberg says is in good condition, bears two labels in the handwriting of 
Thunberg, Linneeus’s successor at Upsala, as follows :—“‘Coluber sibilans, Mus. Ad. Frid.”; 
and a third, more modern, as follows :—‘ U. U. Z. M. Linn. Saml. No. 30 Mus. Principis. 
Coluber sibilans, Psammophis sibilans.” Professor Lonnberg says that “ the description 
of the coloration given by Linneus (Am. Acad. i. p. 303) is very complete, and its 
correctness may yet be proved on the specimen,’—which is wonderful, considering that 
it has been almost 150 years in alcohol. 


‘ In Linneus’s copy of the first volume of the Ameen. Ac., preserved in the Linnean Society’s Library, the 


word Angus of the above description is erased, and on the margin there occurs, in Linnzus’s handwriting, 
Coluber sibilans. 


308 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


MACROPROTODON. 
Macroprotodon, Guichenot, Expl. Sc. Alg., Se. Phys., Zool. 1850, p. 22. 


Body cylindrical, moderately long; tail rather short, about one-fifth or one-sixth the 
total length; snout short, broad, depressed; rostral much broader than high ; nostril 
between two plates; eye small, slightly vertically elliptic; dorsal scales with apical 
pits, smooth, in 19 to 25 rows; ventrals rounded; anal divided. Maxillary teeth in 
two groups: five or six in the anterior group, the last two enlarged, and followed 
by a wide interspace ; the first four of the second group small, the last two much 
enlarged, fang-like and grooved, placed immediately behind the eye. Mandibular teeth 
in two groups: the first five small, but increasing in size from before backwards, 
the last much enlarged, strong and fang-like, and followed by a wide interspace; the 
nine or ten teeth of the second group small, decreasing in size posteriorly. 


Macroproropon cucuLiatus, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire. (Plate XXXIV. fig. 5.) 


La Couleuwvre « capuchon, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, Descr. de VEgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 148, 
pl. vii. figs. 8-3 1. 

Coluber cucullatus, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, Descr. de Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 151. 

Coronella levis, part., Schlegel, Phys. Serp. 11. 1837, p. 65. 
Macroprotodon mauritanicus, Gervais, Ann. Se. Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 205; Guichen. Explor. Se. 
de l’Algérie, Sc. Phys., Zool. v. 1850, p. 22. 
Lycognathus cucullatus, Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 926; Gervais, Mém. Ac. Montpell. i. 1857, 
p. 511, pl. v. fig. 2. 

Lycognathus teniatus, Dum. & Bibr. vil. 1854, p. 930. 

Lycognathus textilis, Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 931. 

Coronella cucullata, Giinth. Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 35; Proe. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 470; 
Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 55; Schreiber, Herp. Europ. 1875, 
p- 296, fig. 53; Boettger, Abh. Senck. Ges. xii. 1880, pp. 374, 387, et xii. 1883, p. 96; et in 
Kobelt’s Reiseerin. Alg. u. Tunis, 1885, p. 457; Konig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, 
p. 23; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vil. 1894, p. 120. 

Coronella brevis, Giinth. Ann. & Mag. N. H. (8) ix. 1862, p. 58. 

Psammophylax cucullatus, Jan, Arch. Zool. Anat. Phys. Modena, il. 1863, p. 809; Icon. Gén. 
livr. 19, 1866, pl. 1. fig. 3. 

Coronella teniata, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 57. 

Coronella teatilis, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 57. 

Psammophylaz cucullatus, var, textilis, Jan, Icon. Gén. livr. 19, 1866, pl. i. fig. 4. 

? Oxyrhopus scolopax, Gasco, Viagg. in Kgitto, pt. il. 1876, p. 120. 

Macroprotodon maroccanus, Peters, Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Freunde Berlin, 1882, p. 27. 

Coronella (Mucroprotodon) brevis, Reichenow, Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Freunde Berlin, 1883, p. 149. 


MACROPROTODON CUCULLATUS. 309 


Macroprotodon cucullatus, Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 149; Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, 
p- 175 ; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 19; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 109 & 
112; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliv. 1894, p. 85; Boettger, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. 
Wien, xlvi. 1896, p. 279. 

1 g. Maryut District. 

1 2. Ramleh, near Alexandria. 

1 2. Mandara. Dr. Walter Innes. 

12. Abukir. 

Rostral much broader than high, almost semicircular, slightly visible from above ; 
internasals quadrangular, large, forming a broad suture with the rostral, nearly as long 
as the prefrontals; prefrontals square; frontal twice as long as broad, elongately 
shield-shaped, lateral margins very feebly concave ; parietals longer than the frontal, 
rounded behind, slightly divergent ; loreal considerably longer than high; preocular 
broadly excluded from the frontal; two postoculars; temporals 14+2 and 2+2; 
eight upper labials, fourth and fifth entering the orbit, the sixth either in contact 
with the parietal or feebly separated from it. 19 (Egypt) to 25 rows of smooth 
scales across the body; ventrals 162-195; anal 1/1; subcaudals 32-57. General 
colour greyish or buff-olive, with a dorsal series of brownish or blackish spots separated 
by pale yellowish or greyish interspaces, the central scales margined with black, and 
also more or less alternate rows of scales along the sides similarly margined, also the 
angle of every second ventral. Upper surface of the head wholly brownish or blackish, 
or only so from between the eyes backwards to the nape, and downwards on to the 
side of the neck behind the gape; in particoloured heads a dusky band common to 
the internasals and prefrontals and backwards to the eye, and from below the eye 
backwards in a narrow line to the dark colour of the nape. Rostral and upper labials 
yellow. Under surface of the ventrals and subcaudals yellowish or coral-red, either 
wholly so or the centres marked with dusky square spots, in groups of two ventrals, 
the intervening ventral with a mesial narrow dusky band connecting two groups. 


Measurements &c. of M. cucullatus, /s. Geoff. St.-Hil. (iu millim.). 


Relation | 
+ Labials of pree- 
Total ., | Ven- ; | Cau- Upper : Pree- Post- | Tem- Dae 
Sik length. ‘eal trals. canal dals. Stalles. labials. ae oculars. ecules oculars. | porals. Loreal.| Locality. 
frontal. 


365 | 64 | 153} 1/1} 48 19 8 4&5 HIB || 2 1+2 1 | Maryut 
District. 


400 | 64 | 164} 1/1} 42 19 8 4&5 1 B.Ex.| 2 1+2 1 | Ramleh. 


3 

g 

2 370 | 55 | 168} 1/1 | 43 19 8 4&5 1 B. Ex. 2 LAL 1 |Mandara. 
g 


383 | 60 |167|1/1] 43 | 19 8 4&5 IL B.Ex.| 2 YS 2)) 2 Albulens | 


310 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


The largest Egyptian specimen is a female 400 millim. long, of which the tail 
measures 64 millim. ; but Duméril and Bibron record a specimen 550 millim. in length, 
with the tail 98 millim. 

Ihave met with this species only along the coast-line near Alexandria. One I 
found under a stone close to the sea-shore, indeed practically on it, amid the barren 
surroundings of Canopus, another under an old kerosine-tin on a grassy spot on the 
otherwise sandy Ramleh, and a third in a barley-field on sandy ground in the Maryut 
District. 

It is distributed over Northern Africa from Egypt to the coast of Mogador, is 
present in Southern Spain, in the Balearic Islands, and on the island of Lampedusa. 

It is said to be one of the most common serpents in Algeria, where Guichenot states 
that it abounds under stones in thickets and dry and stony places. 

It lives on small rodents and lizards. 

Dr. Innes informs me that its native name is | lw. =beshds. 

In Africa the scales vary from 19 to 25. In Egypt they apparently never exceed 19, 
and five specimens from Tripoli in the British Museum have the same number, while 
in three from Tunisia two have the same number and one 21. Three of four Algerian 
examples have 19 scales, and the fourth 20; but in Morocco, from the city to the coast, 
the two numbers 23 and 25 are alone met with, the latter being exceptional. This 
numerical increase of the scales in this region recalls what occurs among other 
reptiles. In Tangier, and at Algeciras on the opposite coast, the number is 21, but 
in the Province of Andalucia as many as 23 scales are met with. 

The extent to which the sixth labial is in contact with the parietal varies considerably, 
and not unfrequently the two are quite separated by the first temporal becoming 
wedged in between the two postoculars, and in other instances only with the lower 
postocular. In the Cairo Museum, I have observed only one specimen out of four in 
which the sixth labial completely excluded the temporal from the postocular. 

The snakes from Tripoli very much resemble the Egyptian snakes in their colora- 
tion, but the ventrals are only obscurely spotted. In a Tunisian specimen the black 
spots of the back and sides become reduced to a mere black margining of the scales in 
the position occupied by the spots in Egyptian examples, and the ventrals are im- 
maculate. At Hammam Meskoutine, on the Algerian frontier of Tunisia, in a specimen 
of this species which I obtained there some years ago there is a double line of 
longitudinally disposed dark brown narrow bars along the mesial line of the back ; 
lying parallel and close together, and external to them, at about the distance of two 
scales, is a single line of dark bars, and still another between the third and fourth 
rows of scales, and a black line between the angle of some of the ventrals and the first 
dorsal scale. Ventral surface immaculate. 

In specimens from Tangier, the barring of the back becomes replaced by narrow 
black margins to the scales in the position occupied by the bars in Algerian specimens. 


9 


MACROPROTODON CUCULLATUS. dll 


The spots on the ventrals may be feeble and sparse in some, while in others they are 
even more strongly developed than in the Egyptian specimens. This type of coloration 
occurs also in specimens from the city of Morocco, whereas in a specimen (the type 
of Coronella levis, Gthr.) from an island off the coast of Mogador the coloration 
recalls the Egyptian snakes, but the ventrals are immaculate. Ina specimen with no 
more detailed indication of its origin than “ Morocco,” the coloration of the dorsal 
surface is that of the Hammam Meskoutine individual, but the ventrals are covered 
with great black spots, and the entire head, upper and under surfaces to the nape, 
_with the exception of a narrow yellowish line along the upper labials, is deep bluish 
black. The extent to which the black hood is developed is very varied, and in some 
it is very feebly developed, while in others, such as in Tangier specimens, it becomes 
broken up into bands, nuchal, transocular, and subocular. In this detail of coloration 
they are exactly resembled by the Andalucian snakes, which in the coloration of their 
bodies alone resemble that of the Tangier examples of the species, which differ but 
little from those of Algeria and Tunisia. 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


(sy) 
pan 
i) 


SeriesC. PROTHROGLYPHA. 


ELAPINAS. 


NAJA. 


Naja, Laur. Syst. Rept. 1768, p. 90. 

Body and tail cylindrical, moderately elongate; head rather short, scarcely distinct: 
from the neck; neck generally dilatable; nostril between two nasals and the inter- 
nasal; no loreal; eye moderate, pupil round; scales smooth, in oblique series, usually 
most numerous on the neck; anal entire; subcaudals divided or entire. A pair of 
large grooved poison-fangs at the anterior end of the maxilla which projects distally to 
the palatine ; one to three small grooved teeth at its posterior end; anterior mandibular 


teeth longer than the posterior. 


Nasa HAJE, Linn. (Plate XLIV.) 


Coluber haje, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, p. 317; Linn. Mus. Adolph. Frid. ii. 1764, 
p- 46; Syst. Nat. 1. 1766, p. 387; Forskal, Descr. Anim. 1775, p. 14. 

‘Coluber niveus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 884. 

Cerastes candidus, Laur. Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 83. ‘ 

Coluber candidissimus, Lacép. Hist. Nat. Serp. ii. 1789, p. 76 et p. 118. 

Vipera nivea, Daud. Rept. vi. 1803, p. 39. 

Vipera haje, Daud. Rept. vi. 1803, p. 41; Audouin, Descr. de ’Heypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1829, p. 184, 
Rept. Suppl. pl. 11. figs. 11-13. 

La Vipére haje, Is. Geoffvoy St.-Hilaire, Descr. de ’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ?1827, p. 157, pl. vii. 
figs. 2, 4, & 5. 

Vipera (Nata) haje, Is. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, op. cit. p. 157, pl. vi. figs. 2, 4, & 5. 

L’ Aspic, Savigny, Descr. de ? Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. Suppl. pl. iii. (dated 1813) ? 1829, figs. 11-13. 

L’ Aspic haje, Audouin, Descr. de ’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1829, p. 184. 

Naja haje, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 148; Schlegel, Phys. Serp. ii. 1837, p.471; A. Dum. 
Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1856, p. 554; Jan, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1859, p. 129; Peters, Mon. 
Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 276; Reichen. Arch. f. Natur. 1874, p. 293; Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. ii. 
1876, p. 212; Miiller, Verh. naturf. Ges. Basel, vi. 1878, p. 616; Lataste, Le Natural. 1881, 
p- 371; Peters, Reise n. Mossamb. ii. 1882, p. 137, pl. =x. figs. 7&8; Boettger, Abh. Senck. 
Ges. xiil. 1883, p. 104; Reichenow, Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Freunde Berl. 1883, p. 150; Tristram, 
West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 146; Valery Mayet, C. R. Ac. Se. xeviii. 1884, p. 1296; 
KG6nig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, p. 24; Boettger, Ber. Senck. Ges. 1893-94, p. 92 ; 
Olivier, Mém. Soe. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 123; Bocage, Jorn. Sc. Lisboa, (2) iv. no. 14, 
1896, p. 100; Tornier, Kriechth. Deutsch-Ost-Afr., Rept. & Amph. 1897, p. 84. 

Ureus hoje, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 173. 


Pl. XLIV. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


NAJA HAJE. 


3, Beni Hassan, 4 grown 


wih y i 7 Pye a i 
at fe es ia wi ty a wv 
: i eo ipa) if 
. ‘ ‘. 
. ‘ a 
, i 
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ie Fi 
ca 5 
vas iy 
>; ' 
é i 
. y 
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, 
BS ci 
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. % F 1 y 4 
\ 
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we 
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‘ 7 4 ¥, 1 
. 2 4 
\ 
. 1 
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; 
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. 
¥ , ¥ 


NAJA HAJE. 313 


Naja (Ureus) haje, Riippell, Mus. Senck. 11. 1845, p. 312. 

Naja haje, part., Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 1298. 

Naja haje, var. annulifera, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1854, p. 624; Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii, 1891, 
p. 152. 

Naja haje, var. A, Giiuther, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 226. 

Naja haje, var. viridis, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1873, p. 411, pl. 1. fig. 1. 

Naia haie, Cuvier, Rég. An. 1817, 11. p. 82, et nouv. éd. 1829, ii. p. 93; Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soe. xiii. 
1891, p. 152; Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1896, p.374; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xvii. (xxxvii.) 
1896-97, p. 279; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom., Zool. v. 1896, p. 35. 


@. Maryut District. 
Beltim. 
@. Abbasiyeh. Major-General H. M. L. Rundle, D.S.O., C.M.G. 
2. Fields below Pyramids of Gizeh, close to water. 
g and1 2. Fayum. Major R. H. Brown, R.E., C.M.G. 
@. Beni Hassan. M. W. Blackden, Esq. 
$. Telel Amarna. Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 


Ewes He we ee 


Neck dilatable ; snout moderately broad ; rostral as broad as high or somewhat more 
so, the portion above more or less triangular, equal to about one-half of the distance, 
or slightly more, between its posterior border and the frontal; internasals smaller than 
the prefrontals, their mesial suture more than half of the length of the suture between 
the prefrontals, more or less in contact with the posterior nasal, occasionally excluded 
by the prefrontals, forming a transverse suture with the prefrontals and with the 
frontal ; frontal about equal in breadth to the supraocular, as long as the conjoint 
median sutures of the prefrontals and internasals, its anterior breadth equal to four- 
fifths of its length or nearly so; parietals shorter than the conjoint length of the 
frontal and of the prefrontal sutures, with some enlarged shields behind them; one 
preocular, not reaching the upper surface of the head, broadly excluded from the 
frontal by the prefrontal and supraocular, not touching the internasal ; two or three 
suboculars, almost invariably excluding the third labial from the orbital margin ; two, 
rarely three, postoculars, the two anterior usually in contact with the fourth, fifth, and 
sixth labials; temporals 14-2 or 3; seven upper labials, exceptionally eight, third 
higher and broader than the second and fourth, very rarely entering the eye, sixth 
large, broad, and deep, touching the lower postocular ; anterior chin-shields in contact 
with four lower labials, generally much broader than the posterior pair and somewhat 
larger, the latter separated by 1+2 scales. 21 to 283 scales across the neck; 19 to 21 
across the middle of the body. Ventrals 191-214; anal 1; subcaudals 53-64. 

Colour variable: (a) uniform brown above, yellowish below, with a blackish collar, 
the breadth of about 10 ventrals, beginning on the 15th ventral, dark brown above, 
black below; a dusky spot under the eye: (0) pale brown above, with a black head, 
black collar and subocular spot, the body-scales with dark brown margins, giving rise 
to numerous more or less oblique or transverse lines, most distinctly transverse on the 

28 


314 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


posterior part of the body; underparts yellowish: (¢) uniform brown above with a 
yellowish-brown head; underparts yellowish white, but each ventral more or less 
marked with dark brown, completely involving the 4th to the 25rd ventral; caudals 
margined with dusky brown: (d) uniform brown aboye, marked with widely scattered 
yellow spots, generally involving one scale and irregularly alternate, in about twelve 
series ; under surface rich yellowish, each ventral margined with dusky brown; 12th to 
24th ventral dark purplish brown: (e) pale brown above, slightly paler on the head, 
spotted irregularly with dark brown, a spot generally involving only one scale, the 
broad yellow transverse band on the latter part of the body, and one on the tail ; 
ventrals yellowish white, margined with dusky, the nineteenth to the twenty-eighth 
purplish brown. : 

In the first specimen yet recorded from Medina, Arabia, the colour is pale brown, with 
dark markings tending to be arranged more or less in transverse bands on the posterior 
part of the body; but besides the deep black collar there is a broad yellowish band 
anterior to it across the neck, with a central black spot and a black spot on the side 
of the neck, markings which are never present in Egyptian cobras, but which from 
their position foreshadow, as it were, the spectacle of V. tripudians. 

The Egyptian cobra attains to 1790 millim. (7. e. practically 6 feet), of which the 
tail measures 245 millim. ce ; ; 

It is very common in Lower and Upper Egypt, and is found both on the alluvium 
and on the margin of the desert. At Maryut I met with it in barley-fields not far 
distant from the Lake, and, at Gizeh, on the margins of the backwaters left by the 
retiring Nile. It is prevalent on the moist fields of the alluvium and occurs close to 
the sea at Beltim. It occasionally enters human habitations, and I have seen a 
specimen that had been captured in a house in Cairo. 

It is distributed over Northern Africa from Egypt to Morocco, along the Nile valley 
southwards to Mozambique, and from the latter area northwards to Somaliland. It is 
also present in Southern Palestine and in the North-western Province of . Arabia 
(Medina). 

Its food consists largely of batrachians, more especially toads, but it lives also upon 
rats and mice. It takes freely to water, crossing broad streams. As a rule it is not 
aggressive. 

Some of the members of this genus, like Sepedon, are remarkable for the habit 
they have of ejecting their saliva by an act of forcible expiration when irritated. 
Pliny! has described the ptyas, or spitting-serpent, and A‘lian ? doubtless referred to 
the same habit when he describes the Libyan asp as blinding with its breath those 
who looked at it. Prosper Alpinus%, writing about 14 centuries later, says that there 
were three kinds of asp in Egypt, and that the spitting-snake ptyas was so called 

1 Nat. Hist. 28. 6. 18; 31. 6. 3. ? Hist. Anim. iii, 33. 
* Rerum Algypt. lib. iv. cap. iy. (1735, 4to). 


9 


NAJA HAJE. 315 


from its murderous habit of spitting venom on men and animals. ‘The asp and ptyas 
of these writers was the Egyptian cobra. 

Although many examples of NV. haje have passed under my observation, I cannot 
recall a single instance of one ejecting its saliva to a distance. 

Smith ! has described the spitting-habit of the South-African cobra (VV. flava, Merr.), 
and mentions that both natives and Europeans asserted that it could eject its poison, 
or more correctly its saliva, for several feet. He states that if the fluid should happen 
to reach the eyes it produced inflammation and not uncommonly loss of sight. Of 
late years, this habit has been verified in JV. nigricollis, which is also found in Upper 
Egypt, and likewise in N. anchiete, each of which, with MW. flava, merits the term 
* cuspideira”’ applied to them by the Portuguese colonists? and the equivalent of the 
“ cracheur” of the French. 

As M. Berenger-Ferand * had related many cases of extensive conjunctivitis followed 
by ulceration of the cornea produced by the ejected saliva of a black serpent on the 
West Coast of Africa, and known in that region as the “ cracheur,’ M. Bavay 4 requested 
M. Lenaour to try and clear up the matter by conducting some investigations in 
Dahomey. ‘The latter encountered the serpent on three occasions, and, on two, his 
bitch had her eyes injured by the liquid ejected by the snake, symptoms of inflam- 
mation manifesting themselves in less than two minutes, followed by conjunctivitis 
and swelling of the eyelids of a grave character, which, however, subsided under 
treatment in twelve days. He also relates that at Porto Nova, a shopkeeper 
working in his store received from a black cobra a jet of liquid that brought on violent 
conjunctivitis. He obtained the head of one of these snakes, which was stated to have 
been JV. haje, but it was more likely to be W. nigricollis. Professor Bocage® has con- | 
firmed the habit of spitting in NV. nigricollis by observations made on a specimen he kept 
alive for nine months. When irritated it raised the anterior half of its body, curved 
its head forwards, dilated its hood, and, by an energetic spitting, threw its saliva a 
certain distance. This has been further verified by the personal experience of 
M. Petit ®, who when attempting to seize a specimen of this snake had a quantity 
of its saliva discharged on to his face and into his eyes, followed immediately by 
terrible pain in his eyes that lasted for six hours. On the other hand, M. Maclaud? 
mentions a case in which no evil effects happened when the eyes were at once washed 
with water, and he also states that rats when inoculated with the freshly ejected saliva 


1 Hl. Zool. S. Afr. 1849. 

* Bocage, Herpét. d’Angola et du Congo, 1895, p. 133. 
* Arch. de Méd. Navale, lvii. 1892, p. 241. 

* Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xx. 1895, p. 210. 

° Herpét. d’Angola et du Congo, 1895, p. 133. 

* Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xx. 1895, p. 239. 

™ Op. cit. 1896, p. 59. 


bo 
n 
bo 


316 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


of this snake were unaffected by it. These experiments prove that the injurious 
effects of the saliva are caused by the presence in it, in a varying degree, of some irritant 
substance, probably the secretion of the poison-glands. 

One of the names borne by one of the supposed varieties of the common Indian 
cobra, WV. tripudians, is sputatria; but Dr. D. D. Cunningham, whose extensive researches 
in Calcutta regarding the venom of the Indian cobra necessitated the handling and 
observation of a very large number of specimens, informs me that he has never seen 
one spit out its saliva. 

From November, or about that period, the cobra remains hidden away in some 
hole underground in a semitorpid state, until the heat of spring returns, when it 
regains its vigour. In this, however, it is not singular, for in Egypt during winter 
few reptiles are met with compared with the profusion in which they occur in the 
height of summer. But the cobra appears to be extremely susceptible to cold, and in 


Egypt it succumbs to it if left exposed in the open on acold night even when protected 
by a covering. 


Measurements &e. of N. haje, Linn. (in millim.). 


Labials | 


Ses Ng, Tal) analy S| Safes BER eter Sams gd Temporals) Loa, 
2 | 408 | SSIS) i Ba |e) 7}. | 2 | 2 | 2 .. | Medina, Arabia. 
@ | 590)| 92i)211 1 | 63 | 21-23) 7 1 | 2 | 2 | gyig |Maryut District, 
| 2 || GeO | ON |2o|) a |} Gl |i R) 7 5G 1 2 2 143 » » 
9 | 632| 95/213] 1 | 59 |21-23| 7 1 | 2 | 2 | 1+8 | Abbasiyeh. 
Q | 2 lle dl) G3 los! Be oo) i | @ | @ |) eS ewan 
790 |180/202| 1 | 64 |21-23) 7 |Raa| 1 | BZ | 2 | 148 | Beltim. 
Q | 1175 |172|205) 1 | 55 |21-23) 7 | 2 | Ee | asks) lla, 
g | 1185 |192]197| 1 | 61 [21-23] 7 1 DB | QB | was | ow 
3 | 1293 | 222/204) 1 | 63 |21-23) 7 1 3 2 1+8 | Tel el Amarna. 
@ | 1880 |220/212] 1 | 62 |21-23) 7 1S) 2) ies) | Manyut: 
@ | 1445 |244] 208] 1 | 64 |o1-23| 7 | .. | wo | BS | 2 | 148 | Beni Hassan. 
© || Wee) us| 053) | 45 ea 7 i os | 2] | Be ee 
1780 |280}208| 1 | 60 |21-93| 7 Li | 3 | 2 | 148 | Maryut. 
1790 |245|209] 1 | 53 |21-93| 7 1 2 2 143 RS 


NAJA HAJE. 317 


” in allusion to the expansion 


The native name is 2) = nashir, meaning “ spreading, 
of the neck when the snake rises to strike or is excited. The Arabs appear to 
distinguish a number of varieties, for which they have special names. Thus the 
yellow spotted cobras are seemingly known to them as bukhakh and the young as 
abu dukur or ebnu. ‘The specific term haje applied to this cobra is simply the Arabic 
KS = haiya, a serpent. 

A few interesting variations are present in the shields on the side of the snout. In 
the fifth specimen there are only 6 labials on the right side, as in WV. nigricollis, while 
in the sixth individual the third labial enters the orbital margin on one side of the 
head as in that species, while on the opposite side (left) the third labial tends to 
divide and to produce a second preocular as init. In the seventh specimen a very 
small shield lies opposite the suture between the preocular and the third labial, thus 
occupying the position of a preocular, and behind the posterior nasal and between the 
preocular and the third labial is a minute shield in the position of a loreal. On the 
right side of the heads of numbers 11 and 13 a small shield is present as a second 
preocular, and in the former of these two a postocular has fused with a subocular. 
These variations indicate a very close relationship with WV. nigricollis, and illustrate a 
truth always being forced on the observer in dealing with many so-called genera of 
reptiles, that species are not the well-defined entities that many of them are supposed 
to be. Some of the foregoing specimens also manifest a distinct tendency to division 
in the anal. 

No systematic investigation into the action of the venom of the Egyptian cobra has 
yet been undertaken. Panceri ! made some remarks on the subject about a quarter of a 
century ago; but there is nothing in his communication of any importance, in view of the 
researches that have been carried on of late years into the nature of the venom of the 
Indian cobra, NV. tripudians. 

Sewall?, in 1887, showed that animals could be rendered immune to as much as 
seven times a lethal dose of rattlesnake-venom by previous repeated inoculations of 
very small quantities of the same poison. A year later Kaufmann? made known 
immunization against the venom of the viper by the same process. In 1891, Kanthack 4, 
in his experiments that had been conducted in India, rendered animals resistant to 
cobra-venom, and experimented with the object of ascertaining whether the serum of 
animals rendered immune had any antitoxic properties, but the results were negative. 
MM. Phisalix and Bertrand®, three years later, communicated to the Academy of 

* Bull. de l'Instit. Egypte, Année 1872-1873, no. 12; Expér. sur les effets du venin du Naja d’Egypte et 
du Ceraste (Naples, 1873). 

* Journ. Physiol. viii. 1887, p. 203. 

* «Du venin de la Vipére,’ Mém. couronné par l’Acad. de Méd. 1888 (Paris, 1889) ; Mém. Acad. de Méd. 
xxxvi. fase. Ie, 1891, p. 85; OC. R. Soe. Biol. Paris, 1894, p. 118. 

* Journ. Physiol. xiii. 1892, p. 271. 

* ©, R. Ac. Paris, 1894, p. 356; C. R. Soc. Biol. Paris, 1894, p. 111 et p. 124. 


518 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Sciences of Paris the fact that they had been able to confer on guinea-pigs partial 
immunity to viper-poison by injecting solutions of the venom attenuated by heating it 
to 80° centigrade, and that the blood-serum of animals so treated possessed antitoxic 
properties. M. Calmette!, a few days later, in a communication to the Biological 
Society of Paris, stated that the same serum was not merely antitoxic but preventative 
and therapeutic; and a month later he announced to the Academy of Sciences * that he 
had been able to immunize rabbits, guinea-pigs, dogs, and asses against the venom of 
a variety of snakes by means of the repeated injections of small doses of venom, and 
that he had found the serum of animals so treated to be antitoxic. In June, in the 
following year, Professor T. R. Fraser? made known the results of his experiments 
with the venom of the cobra and other serpents, and the antidotal blood-serum of 
immunized animals, and in the following month 4 he added some further observations 
on antidotal blood-serum, or “antivenene,” as he proposed to call it, and at the same 
time communicated some experiments he had made on the ingestion of cobyra-venom 
by animals. 

MM. Phisalix and Bertrand ®, in January 1896, explained their views of the relations 
that exist between the two methods by which animals may be rendered immune to the 
action of snake-venom. In both the same mechanism is at work, and it is the same 
chemical process that creates the refractory condition, the final result consisting in the 
formation of antitoxyic substances—only in “ vaccination” the defensive reaction of the 
organism is alone active, and not fettered by the poisons which impede it as in the 
establishment of immunity by “ accoutumance,’ in which the phenomenon is more 
complex. ‘ Vaccination” they define as “ accoutwmance abnégée,” and “ accoutumance ” 
as “ vaccination progressive.” 

Dr. D. D. Cunningham has favoured me with the following statement regarding 
the conclusions that may legitimately be drawn from the data bearing on the establish- 
ment of artificial immunity to the action of snake-venom and the protective and curative 
properties of the serum of the blood of immunized animals. He says :— 


«1, The action of any snake-venom on entering the system of a susceptible animal is twofold :— 
a. It gives rise to intoxication. 
b. It induces the reactive manufacture of a material counteractive of the action of its toxic 
constituents. 
“2. The latter action is persistent over prolonged periods—certainly, in the case of viperine venom, over 
periods of at least a year’s duration. 
“3. In consequence of this persistence it is possible to establish artificial immunity by means of the repeated 
administration of progressively increased doses of venom. Beginning with the administration of sublethal 


* C. R. Soe. Biol. Paris, 1894, p. 120 et p. 204; Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1894, p. 275. 
* C. RK. Ac. Se. Paris, 1894, p. 720. 

* Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb. 1895, p. 448. 

* Op. cit. p. 471. 

° Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. ii. 1896, p. 36. 


NAJA HAJE. 519 


doses the persistent presence of a certain amount of antidotal material within the system is secured. This 
must serve to convert any normally minimal lethal doses which may be subsequently administered into 
sublethal ones, and, as the development of antidotal material bears a direct ratio to the amount of venom 
entering the system, the successive administration of progressively increased doses of venom must lead to 
corresponding rise in degree of immunity. 

“4. The serum of the blood of artificially immunized animals contains the antidotal material on which 
their immunity depends, and hence the introduction of such serum into the system of non-immunized and 
susceptible animals must tend to counteract the toxic effects of snake-venom upon them. 

*©5, But in cases of artificial immunity the quantity of antidotal material in the system appears to corre- 
spond closely with the amount of venom to which immunity has been established—there does not appear to 
be any considerable manufacture of antidote in excess of the quantity necessary to neutralize the toxic action 
of the amount of venom in relation to which immunity has been established. 

«6. Consequently, so long as crude serum is employed as an antidote, in any case in which a non-immunized 
animal has received a given dose of venom, it must be necessary, in order to neutralize the normal toxic 
effect, to employ the entire or almost entire serum-contents of the blood of an animal which has been 
immunized up to the point of resisting a corresponding dose, or, if smaller bulks of serum are to be efficient, 
to employ serum from animals in which a relatively very excessive immunity has been established. 

“<7. It follows from this that, whilst treatment with crude serum may be efficient in dealing with cases in 
which minimal lethal, or slightly supra-minimal lethal, doses of venom have to be counteracted, it is not 
likely to be of any practical value in dealing with doses of larger amount. 

“8. The relative immunity conferred by the introduction of the serum of immunized animals into the 
system differs from that following the introduction of yenom in being very transitory 


it depends on the 
introduction of a ready-made antidote and not on the local manufacture of an antidote within the system. 
“9. Artificially established immunity to the action of colubrine venom does not imply the presence of 
any immunity to the action of viperine venom, and vice versa. 
“10. The excessive immunity of venomous snakes to the action of snake-venom is not dependent on the 
presence of any antidotal material within the system of the same nature as that which is developed within 
the bodies of susceptible animals under the influence of such venom.” 


The immunity to the venom of snakes claimed by certain sects and tribes of men as 
the result of the ingestion of the poison is a subject of considerable interest. Not a 
few travellers and others of unquestionable reliability have recorded that certain 
peoples of the African continent and of other parts of the globe resort to the practice 
of drinking the venom of snakes, of eating the poison-glands, and even the snakes 
themsélves, to secure for their persons an immunity from the deadly results usually 
following the bites of these animals. 

Professor Fraser made a series of experiments with the object of determining 
whether serpent’s venom is inert or nearly so when introduced into the stomach of an 
animal; He administered cobra-venom to a cat, gradually increasing the doses up to 
eighty times more than a minimum lethal dose, with no evil result. Under this treat- 
ment the cat was found to have become protected against cobra-venom, and so much so 
that one and a half the minimum lethal dose of the poison could be injected subcuta- 
neously with impunity. Moreover, it was discovered that its blood-serum was definitely 
antivenomous, and the still more remarkable fact was ascertained that her progeny had 
acquired protection through her milk. Experiments of a like nature were made on 


320 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


other animals with similar results. The most recent conclusion drawn by Professor 
Fraser! from these experiments is that a degree of protection against lethal doses of the 
venom of the cobra is acquired in a few hours by the administration of the venom by 
the stomach, whereas it requires several weeks to establish an immunity to the venom 
when it is injected under the skin. He also suggested that the results of the experi- 
ments on the ingestion of cobra-venom by animals probably afforded an explanation of 
the alleged immunity to the effects of snake-poison claimed by snake-charmers and 
certain sects of men. 

The immunity induced by the ingestion of cobra-venom he explained on the theory 
that the poison when it reaches the stomach becomes the subject of an analytical 
process, in which the poisonous constituent of the venom fails to be absorbed by the 
blood, whereas the constituent or constituents which are antidotal pass into the blood 
and so protect the animal against otherwise lethal administrations of venom. 

Dr. D. D. Cunningham ?, who has investigated this subject, records two experiments 
the results of which are seemingly in direct conflict with those attained by Professor 
Fraser. A monkey (J/acacus rhesus) was treated with doses of cobra-venom by the 
mouth for a period of sixteen months. The ingestion of the venom gave rise to no 
appreciable symptoms of intoxication, but a minimum lethal dose of cobra-venom 
finally administered by subcutaneous injection, but how long after the last dose by the 
mouth had been administered does not appear, produced symptoms of intoxication after 
an interval of 43 hours, and death 53 hours later. Another monkey of the same 
species received by the mouth a dose of 0:2 gramme, 7. e. 80 times the amount of a 
minimal lethal dose when administered subcutaneously, but no appreciable result 
followed. After the expiry of 24 hours, when 0:0025, or a minimal lethal dose, of dried 
venom was subcutaneously injected symptoms of intoxication developed within two 
hours and death followed in 54 hours later on. Dr. Cunningham, on the strength of 
these two experiments, says that the second shows that the ingestion of an amount of 
venom 80 times as great as that constituting a lethal dose when entering the system 
directly is incapable of producing any appreciable effect on the action of a minimal 
lethal dose administered subcutaneously 24 hours later, while the first experiment proves 
that the prolonged and habitual ingestion of smaller quantities of venom is equally 
inefficacious. He explains the conflicting results of his own and Professor Fraser’s 
experiments on the supposition that, in those cases in which protective effects seem to 
follow the ingestion of large quantities of venom, they may possibly have arisen in 
connection with the presence of breaches of continuity or other abnormalities in the 
surface of the mucous membrane of the alimentary tract allowing of the absorption 
of a certain amount of crude venom, rather than by an analysis of the venom by the 
normal digestive apparatus as suggested by Professor Fraser. 

Royal Instit. G. Britain, March 1896. 
* Sc. Mem. Med. Officers Army of India, part x. (Calcutta, 1897). 


NAJA HAJE. 321 


The principle of administering special preparations of the officinal viper (Cerastes 
vipera) as an antidote to snake-poisoning is one of great antiquity in medicine. 

I have not been able to obtain any statistics as to the number of deaths in Egypt 
attributable to snake-bites. 

As the cobra was sacred throughout ancient Egypt and entered largely into the 
beliefs of the people and into the mysteries of their religion, it is profusely represented 
on the monuments and tombs. If the tomb of Seti I., for example, be examined, it 
will be found that the serpents so frequently depicted on it, in a variety of scenes 
and a diversity of attitudes, some invariably occupying certain positions, are all 
apparently cobras. In every one of them there is the same conventional pattern 
in the arrangement of the colour-markings; but many of them, according to the 
parts they play in the different rituals, have distinctive names so numerous that 
they recall AXlian’s statement that there were 16 kinds of asps. However, if 
they are compared with the magnificent figure of a cobra by Savigny', it will be 
seen that the conventional pattern of coloration probably originated from cobras of 
the type represented by the distinguished French savant. The figures of snakes on 
the monuments have, however, not always been regarded as representing one and the 
same species. Champollion, for example, in his ‘ Panthéon Egyptien,’ considered the 
serpent he regarded as the emblem of the ‘‘ Bon Génie Cnouphis” to be quite distinct 
from the Ureus asp, or cobra, with which he held it had nothing in common; but the 
figure he gives of the serpent of the Bon Génie, supported on two human legs, in no 
way differs from some of the figures on the tomb of Seti I., all of which are seemingly 
intended for the Urwus asp, and conform to one type of colour-ornamentation, which 
would not have been the case had more than one species of snake been represented. 

Some of the conventional figures of the cobra with distended head in Seti’s tomb 
and similar monuments are of special interest, as they are represented as ejecting fluid 
from their mouths, so that it would appear that the ancient Egyptians believed in the 
spitting habit of the cobra, or ptyas. 

Naja haje, which Cuvier says is incontestably the serpent which the ancients described 
under the name of the aspic of Egypt, was sacred to Khnum (Chnoumis) and Rannu. 
It was known to the Egyptians as ara, the Greek ovpaioc, and was the determinative or 
emblem of all goddesses ; and, as a sign of royal power, along with the sun’s disk, formed 
part of the headdress of all solar deities. It was also an emblem of the physical sun. 
Asp-formed crowns were the particular head-dress of Egyptian kings and queens. 
Towards the twentieth dynasty, when it became a custom to preserve animals, it 
was embalmed at Thebes and at Sakkarah. The subject, however, is too complex to 
be dealt with by anyone save a master in Egyptology. 

The dilatable neck of the cobra and the erect attitude assumed by the anterior part 
of the body when the animal is excited, probably originated the myth about the 
existence of flying serpents in Egypt, mentioned by Herodotus and other authors, ancient 


1 Descr. de Egypte, Rept. Suppl. pl. iii. 
27 


$22 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


and modern; but as the Urwus asp was occasionally represented on the monuments 
with wings, this may possibly have accentuated the belief in such flying monsters. 

It is the favourite snake of snake-charmers and jugglers, doubtless owing to the 
striking attitude it assumes when irritated, and the dread in which it is generally held 
by reason of the deadly character of its poison. 


NAJA NIGRICOLLIS, Reinhardt. (Plate XLV.) 


Vipera (Naia) haje, part., Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, Descr. de ’Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 157, 
pl. vii. fig. 3. F 

Naia nigricollis, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. in. 1896, p. 378; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1891, p. 308; op. cit. 
1896, p. 216; Bocage, Jorn. Ac. Se. Lisboa, (2) iv. no. ]4, 1896, pp. 79, 95, et 113, no. 15, 
p- 178; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xvi. (xxxvii.) 1896-97, pp. 13, 21, et 279; Aun. & 
Mag. N. H. (6) xix. 1897, p. 280; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 801; Mocquard, Bull. Mus. Paris, 
1896, p. 59; Tornier, Kriechth. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. 1897, p. 84. 

Naja nigricollis, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 88. 

Naja nigricollis, var. occidentalis, Bocage, Herpét. d’ Angola et du Congo, 1895, p. 135. 


1¢. Assuan. 


Neck dilatable ; snuut broad; rostral much broader than high, the portion above 
more or less rounded posteriorly, equal to about one-half of the distance between its 
hind border and the frontal; internasals smaller than the prefrontals, their mesial 
suture equal to about two-thirds of the length of the suture between the prefrontals, 
more or less in contact with the preeocular, or excluded by the prefrontals, with which 
and the frontal they form transverse sutures; frontal equal to the breadth of a supra- 
ocular, longer than the conjoint sutures of the preefrontals and internasals, its anterior 
breadth equal to its length or nearly so; parietals as long as the conjoint lengths of 
the frontal and of the prefrontal suture ; two preeoculars (occasionally only one), not 
reaching the upper surface of the head, broadly excluded from the frontal by the 
prefrontal and supraocular, more or less in contact with the internasal or excluded 
from it; subocular absent (rarely present); two or three postoculars, the lowest in 
contact with the fourth labial; temporals 24+3 or 2+5; six upper labials, rarely 
seven, the third generally enters the orbital margin or may be excluded from it by a 
separated off portion of itself (subocular) ; sixth labial long and narrow, at the angle 
of the mouth ; anterior chin-shields in contact with four labials, broader, as long as, or 
somewhat shorter than, the posterior pair, the latter widely separated by 2 or 3 scales. 
21 to 29 scales across the neck; 19 to 25 across the middle of the body. Ventrals 
183-428; anal 1; subcaudals 56-58. 

General colour of the upper surface (Egypt) moderately pale olive-brown, the skin 
between the scales almost black; many of the scales towards the hinder part of the 
body with their bases black and their tips paler than on the rest of the body, this 


urnssy ‘é 


SITIOOINDIN VIVN 


“NIX ‘Id qdisy jo sopiydoxy 


NAJA NIGRICOLLIS. 323 


feature being most marked on the tail; ventrals pale yellow, rather profusely punctu- 
lated with brown anteriorly, less so posteriorly ; three black transverse bands on the 
under surface of the neck, the first a little way behind the gape, separated from each 
other by yellowish ventrals, the last band being rather obscure. 

This type of coloration, found in snakes from Assuan southwards to the Transvaal, 
has been indicated by Mr. Boulenger as var. mossambica. 'The var. pallida of the 
same author is ‘‘ uniform brown above, yellowish beneath ; lower surface of the neck 


? 


brown in the adult; young with a broad black ring round the neck: ” it is seemingly 
distinctive of Somaliland. There is still another variety of coloration which 
Mr. Boulenger has designated forma typica, and which is more or less characteristic 
of snakes from Gambia to the interior of E. Africa. He has described it thus :— 
“* Dark olive to black above ; lower surface of head and neck black; subcaudals and 
posterior ventrals black, the remainder black and yellow.” 

This species attains to 2000 millim. in length, of which the tail forms 300 millim. 

I met with an example of this species at Assuan, the only one of its kind that has as 
yet been recorded from Egypt, with the exception of the young specimen figured in the 
‘great French work. It extends over Africa from Senegambia to Eastern Somaliland, 
and from Assuan southwards to Angola and the Transvaal. 


Measurements &c. of N. nigricollis, Reinh. (in millim.). 


| Upper 
Sex.| jars, | ail. | Ventrals. | Anal. | Caudals, | Scales. entering eeulares doulas ween|| Tasco, 
orbit. 
Q| ee | 145 | aa | a 63 | 28-97 | Brd | 2 | Ll | 2 | Shiré Valley. 
Q | 1005 | ig) | m6 | a Gl | B25 | saa | 9 | © | 2B |W, Agim, 
@ | 176 || wp | m5 | a | 12) | Sa | 2 | © | B | eRe, 
@ | 185 | mel | 28 | a | Pes | eke | BOL ® | Oo | 8 | fcom 


The last specimen in the foregoing table is the one figured (Plate XLV.), and it 
will be observed that in it the lower preocular is very large, apparently due to the 
amalgamation with it of portions of the second and third labials. On the left side of 
the head in the same snake the third labial is excluded from the orbital margin. 

The ventrals among 12 examples of this species recorded by Mr. Boulenger vary 
from 184 to 201, but in the Assuan individual there are as many as 228 ventrals. It 
is also distinguished by having a greater number (29) of scales round the neck than 
has yet been recorded, and by a greater number (25) round the body than any of the 
others, with the exception of one specimen from the Island of Berber. 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


wo 
Lo 
ne 


WALTERINNESIA. 
Walterinnesia, Lataste, Le Naturaliste, 1887, p. 411. 


Body cylindrical, moderately elongate; tail rather short; head distinct from the 
neck; neck more or less distensible ; canthus rostralis present; nostril defined by two 
or more nasals and the internasal; loreal absent ; eye small, pupil round; scales smooth 
anteriorly, feebly keeled on the posterior part of the body, strongly so on the tail, 
without apical pits, 23 rows across the body, more on the neck; anal divided; sub- 
caudals simple anteriorly, divided posteriorly ; a pair of large grooved poison-fangs at 
the anterior end of the maxilla, which projects distally to the palatine ; no other teeth 
behind; anterior mandibular teeth the longest. 


WaALTERINNESIA £GYPTIA, Lataste. (Plate XLVI.) 


Walterinnesia eyyptia, Lataste, Le Naturaliste, 1887, p. 411; Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, 
p- 892; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 109. 


1g. Loe. unknown. Dr. Walter Innes. 


Neck more or less dilatable; head rather short and deep; snout moderately broad ; 
rostral very much broader than high, the portion above more or less triangular, and 
equal to about one-half of the distance between its posterior border and the frontal; 
internasals about the same size as the prefrontals, their mesial suture about one-third 
shorter than the length of the suture between the prefrontals, in contact with the 
posterior nasal; frontal slightly exceeding the breadth of the supraocular, somewhat 
longer than the conjoint median sutures of the prefrontals and internasals, its anterior 
breadth about three-fourths its length or nearly so; parietals longer than the conjoint 
length of the frontal and of the prefrontal sutures ; one preocular resting on the third 
labial, more than twice as long as high, reaching to the canthus rostralis, excluded from 
the frontal by the prefrontals and supraocular, and in contact with the posterior nasal ; 
one subocular ; two postoculars ; temporals 2+3 or 3+3 (first variable) ; seven upper 
labials, third and fourth, rarely the second, entering the orbital margin; the fifth 
excluded by the subocular; the sixth occasionally in contact with the lower postocular ; 
third, fourth, and sixth the largest and higher than the others; anterior chin-shields 
in contact with four labials, twice as long as broad, considerably longer than the 
posterior pair, but not much broader, the latter separated by two scales. Ventrals 189- 
197; anal 1/1; subcaudals 45-48, the second to the ninth in single, remainder in 
double series. 

Upper surface dark, somewhat purplish brown, almost black in life; entire under 
surface dark yellow or brownish. ° 

A male measures 1187 millim. in length, of which the tail forms 168 millim 


Pl. XLVL. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


3. 


WALTERINNESIA EGYPTIA 


WALTERINNESIA AGYPTIA. 825 


The only specimens on record of this species were purchased by Dr. Walter Innes 
from a snake-charmer in Cairo, and there is nothing to fall back upon, beyond the 
statement of the juggler, to establish it as an Egyptian species. I have made the most 
careful enquiries about its presence in the neighbourhood of Cairo, without having 
been able to throw any light upon the subject, and Dr. Innes’s endeavours to procure 
more specimens have been fruitless. : 

Dr. Innes informs me that the snake-charmer in question said that it was known as 
Jaap =bargil. 


Measurements &c. of W. egyptia, Lataste (in millim.) 


Relation 
Labials of pra- 
Sex. respan Tail. Nene Anals. aa Scales. HP aes entering Sub- | Pree- | ooulars| Post: | Tem-| Nasals, Locality. 


marbit oculars. | oculars. to oculars. | porals. 


frontal. 


48 |23-25) 7 |38rd&4th| 1 1 |B. Ex. 


3 | 1187) 168 | 189 


bo 


bo 
We 
+ 

iss) 


Purchased in 
Cairo. 


Ea! 
bo 09 


The third labial in its upper half enters the orbit much in the same position as does 
the lower preocular in NV. nigricollis, and in exceptional cases of NV. haje. Lataste 
mentions that in the type of the genusa second preocular was formed on the right side 
of the head at the expense of the third labial. 

The genus Boulengerina, Dollo!, from Tanganyika, is distinguished from Walter- 
innesia and Naja, according to Mr. Boulenger, by the further extension forwards of the 
palatines. It differs also from the former in the exclusion of the internasal from the 
nostril, and from the latter by its scales not being oblique in their arrangement. 


* Bull. Mus. Belg. iv. 1886, p. 159; Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 866, pl. xlviii.; Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 
1896, p. 357. 


326 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


VIPERIDZ!. 


CERASTES. 
Cerastes, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 178. 


Body cylindrical, stout; tail short; head markedly distinct from the neck, covered 
with small, more or less tubercular, slightly imbricate scales, with or without supra- 
ocular appendages ; nostrils directed more or less upwards ; nasal single or semidivided ; 
eye well-developed, small scales between it and the labials; pupil vertical. Scales 
in 23-35 rows, those of the back more or less longitudinal, imbricate, with short club- 
shaped keels not reaching to their tips, those of the sides oblique with serrated keels ; 
ventrals laterally angulate ; anal entire, rarely divided ; subcaudals double. 


* The first two of the four following vipers are mentioned here as they may possibly be found to have 
a more northerly distribution, and to enter Egypt like Naja nigricollis and Dasypeltis scabra. The second 
two are noticed for the reasons mentioned under each. 


Catsus rEsIuvs, Peters. 


Heterophis resimus, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 277, pl. fig. 4. 

This little specialized viper, with its head covered, like a colubrine snake, with symmetrical shields, and 
with its fangs, as pointed out by Mr. Boulenger, placed in the posterior end of the maxillary, exactly as in 
the Colubrine Opisthoglyphs, is present at Sennaar. The species was originally described by Peters from 
a specimen obtained in that locality by Dr. Hartmann. It has since been recorded from Lamu, Mkonumbi, 


Ngatana, Lake Tanganyika, and Angola. 


Birts arretans, Merrem. 


Riippell obtained the puff-adder in Kordofan, and Dr. A. Hartmann (Reise durch Nordost-Afr. 1859-60 
(1863) p. 283) met with it on his and Baron yon Barnim’s journey across the Bayuda desert from Debbeh to 
Khartum. Marno records its presence on the sands of the steppes of Kordofan, near the Nile. 

Attention may be here called to the fact that the highly specialized viperine genus Atractaspis, with great 
poison-fangs, but with its palatine and mandibular teeth nearly suppressed, is represented at Wadelai by 
two species, viz. A. irregularis, Reinh., and A. aterrima, Ginther. 


Virera AmMMopytzs, Linn. 


Linnzus, in the ‘ Ameenitates Academicx’ (vol. i. 1749, p. 506, pl. xvii. fig. 2; Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 376), 
recorded Vipera ammodytes from Libya on the authority of Jonston (Hist. Quadr. et Serp. lib. 11. 1657, 
p- 11, tab. i. fig. ammodites), who quoted Solinus as the source of his information. 

A closely allied species to V. ammodytes, viz. V. latastii, Bosci, is present in Algeria, but how far it 
ranges to the east is unknown. It may possibly extend into Libya; but, however this may be, it is quite 
certain that no viper with an erect nasal appendage has ever been recorded from Egypt. Daudin states that 


Pl. XLVIL. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


CERASTES VIPERA. 


¢ , Sandy Desert, Gizeh. 


vy y 1 n i th 
ie re ee ; co ‘ £ ea , 
b eA i ‘ r Towa , i id ia 
LU ary i | a 1 0 
i nik nai y 7, 5 = 
’ — {ie Ube 7 
f foe i 
. i : ¥ 
’ 
' ut ) 
w any ' 
. 4 
, c 
i , F | 
’ ( 
* . 
te U1) 
nN 
- h 
T , 
+ ‘ 
- } ‘ _ 
i 
Ly 7 , 
| { 
. { “e 
f ~ j 
. * i 
i 
ft ' 
. A 
: 
i 
f vy f 
‘ 
4 ’ 
t ' a 
. 
i 2 fs 
iss ' a, 
' 
. 
, 
" 


(Su) 
Lo 
J 


CERASTES VIPERA. 


CERASTES VIPERA, Hasselq. & Linn. (Plate XLVII.) 


Vipera officinarum, Hasselq. Act. Soc. Reg. Sc. Upsala (1750), 1751, Index. 

Vipera, Hasselq. op. cit. p. 24. 

Vipera egypti et officinarum, op. cit. p. 24. 

Vipera eyyptiaca, Hasselq. op. cit. p. 26 et pp. 27, 28. 

Coluber vipera, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Palest. 1757, p. 314; Linn. Mus. Adolph. Frid. ii. 1764, 
p. 48, et Syst. Nat. 1766, p. 375; Bonnaterre, Encyclopéd. Méthod., Ophiol. 1790, p. 21; 
Gmelin, Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. 1788, p. 1085; Shaw, Gen. Zool. iii. part 2, 1802, p. 377. 

Aspis cleopatra, Laur. Syst. Rept. 1768, p. 105. 

? Coluber hélleik, Forskal, Descr. Anim. 1775, p. viii et p. 15. 

Coluber egyptiacus, Lacép. Quad. Ovip. 11. 1789, p. 63. 

Vipera egyptia, Latr. Rept. ii. 1801, p. 312. 

Vipera egyptiaca, Daud. Rept. vi. 1803, p. 212, et viii. 1803, p. 395 ; Boie, Isis, 1827, p. 559. 

Vipera (Echidna) egyptiaca, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 152. 

Cerastes ritchit, Gray, Zool. Mise. 1842, p. 70; Cat. Snakes B. M. 1849, p. 28. 

Echidna atricauda, part., Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 1480. 

Vipera avicenne, part., Jan, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1859, p. 152; Icon. Gén. livr. 45, Juin 1874, 
pl. v. fig. 4. 

Vipera avizenne, Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) xiv. no. 6, 1869, p. 113 et p. 138. 

Vipera cerastes, Gasco, part., Viagg. in Egitto, pt. 11. 1876, p. 120. 

Vipera (Cerastes) cleopatra, Boettger, Kobelt’s Reiseerin. Alg. u. Tunis, 1885, p. 463. 

Cerastes vipera, Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xii. 1891, p. 155, pl. xviii. fig. 2; Cat. Snakes B. M. ii. 
1896, p. 503 ; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 23; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 
1894, p. 125; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliv. 1894, p- 86; Anderson, Herp. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 109; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom., Zool. v. 1896, p. 39. 


in his time it was unknown from Heypt. At the same time V. ammodytes is present in Syria, having been 
found by Canon Tristram on the slopes of Lebanon. 


VIPERA LEBETINA, Linn. 


The viper known under this name was first described by Linnzus, in the 10th edition of the ‘ Systema 
Nature,’ from a specimen said to haye been collected by Hasselquist. It is not mentioned in the ‘Iter 
Palestinum,’ in which, however, Hasselquist refers to a snake he had observed in Cyprus under the name 
of aspic, that is one of the names under which JV. lebetina is known in that island, another name being Kou 
= deaf (adder). In the 10th edition of the ‘Syst. Nat.,’ no more explicit locality is assigned to V. lebetina 
than “ Habitat Oriente”; but in the Catalogue of the Museum of King Adolphus Frederick, V. lebetina 
is stated to be found in Arabia and Egypt. orskal’s specimens are explicitly stated by him to have been 
received from Cyprus. There is no specimen of this species from Hgypt, so far as I have been able to 
ascertain, in any European museum. Strauch stated he had seen a specimen in the Berlin Museum; but 
Dr. G. Tornier informs me that no such specimen exists, though there is one labelled “North Africa,” 
but by whom presented is unknown. 


328 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


5 ¢ andl 9. Desert on east side of Suez Canal, between Suez and Ismailia. 
1s. Desert on west side of Suez Canal, between Suez and Ismailia. 

4 3 and2 92. Desert around Cairo. 

2 3. Desert, Abu Roash. 

1 3. Desert, Gizeh. R.G. Gallop, Esq. 

1 ¢g. Desert, Gizeh. 

1 3g. Desert, Beni Hassan. M. W. Blackden, Esq. 

1. Ras Gharib. Mr. James Robertson. 


Snout broad and short, its length considerably less than the breadth between the 
eyes superiorly and anteriorly; rostral much broader than high, its height equalling one- 
third of its breadth, deeply concave from side to side above its lower border ; nasal plates 
small, generally two, separated from the rostral and front labial usually by two rows of 
scales, and from one another above by four to six scales ; nostril directed outwards and 
backwards; a slightly enlarged scale sometimes above the nasal; eye moderate, its © 
diameter about one-half the length of the snout, separated from the upper labials by 
three to four rows of scales; nine to fourteen rows of scales round the eye; no 
appendages over the eyes ; no enlarged tubercular scales in pairs on the mesial line of 
the head; scales on the upper surface of the head unequal, more or less slightly 
elongate, with a short tubercular keel; 11-12 upper labials, rarely 13; one pair of 
large oval chin-shields, separated by loose skin, in contact with three or four labials. 
23 to 27 rows of scales across the body. 102-122 ventrals (Egypt 108-119), with 
a well-defined lateral keel; anal 1, rarely divided; subcaudals 18-26, distinctly 
keeled, terminal scale short, curved, and claw-like. General colour sandy yellow or 
pinkish, with a dorsal series of about 28 brown spots arranged more or less in 
alternate longitudinal series, frequently absent on the neck, less numerous but more 
pronounced on the posterior part of the body, but sometimes nearly obsolete ; rarely 
two divergent dusky lines on the temporal region; tip of tail not unfrequently deep 
black ; underparts yellowish white. 

The largest Egyptian male measures 345 millim. in length, of which the tail forms 
30 millim. 

‘This species is common on the margin of the desert around Cairo and on the Isthmus 
of Suez. It is also present in Middle Egypt, and will probably be found much further 
to the south, From Egypt it extends over the Sahara to Algeria. 

Nothing is known regarding its habits. I have frequently found it lying in the sun 
among sand and stones. Dr. Walter Innes informs me that its native name is 
sess ae =haiya karaa. 

Forskal’s description of his C. hélleik leads me to suppose that be had this species 
in view. It seemingly refers to a viper, and the only real viper of the size he mentions 
existing in Arabia is this species. Hasselquist informs us that this was the officinal 
viper, from which a certain preparation was made for consumption in Egypt and in 


CERASTES VIPERA. 329 


Measurements &c. (in millim.) of C. vipera, Hasselg. & Linn. 


Scales 
Sex.| jun, | Tail. |Ventrals.| Anal, |Caudals| Scales. | quote |patae are, | intvele Locality. 
and eye. 
fof 225 30 108 1 25 25 12 5,6,&7} 3 | Hastern desert between Suez 
i. 13 and Ismailia. 
6 | BG | 2 | 19 | 2 | SD | oR | Be laa ar) A : . 
S | 223 | 2 | a | a |) m2 | a3 11 BEre| B . - 
G6 | 2D | 2 | My | 2 | w@ | BB ] Be | eer] 4 é : 
. L.5&6 
© | 20 | 2 || m8 | 2 | so | oe 1 eC Ss 2 N 
é 241 25 110 1 26 25 ll 5&6 we Desert west of Suez Canal. 
3 345 30 119 1 22 25 12 6,7,&8] 4 | Desert, Gizeh. 
§ | SO Ise I HOS es es Hl |) SBE 8 ae 
6 | ao | so | me | a | o | oS 11 bP. © 8 3 | Desert, Abu Roash. 
L. 6,7, &8 
6 | 20 | @ | ma | 2 | a | os 1 RP eoH 8 2 - 
@ || 225 | 28 | My | a | 23 | ee ee | Ger | 8 | etisixce, 
3 315 32 114 1 23 25 12 5&6 4 | Neighbourhood of Cairo. 
2 308 23 118 1 20 25 11 5&6 4 a 3 
S || e20 | Sp | me | 2 | a I oS 13 5&6 | 4 - es 
6 || S29 | 9 | mB | 2 | a | oe 11 |5,6,&7| 4 . e 
é | soe | 2 | me | i.) oa | es | 22 | gar | a : ‘ 
2 282 28 116 1 25 25 12 5&6 4 0 a 


Europe, and that quantities were exported to Venice. This drug was known to the 
ancients as theriaca or teriaca. One of its most esteemed actions was that of an antidote 
to snake-poison and to poisons in general. Prosper Alpinus states that during his 
residence in Egypt (1581-1586) the physicians of that country were making viper-pills 
from the flesh of Cerastes cornutus. 


330 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


CeRASTES cornuTUS, Hasselq. (Plate XLVIII.) 


Coluber cornutus', Hasselq. Act. Soc. Reg. Se. Upsal, 1750, pp. 27-28; Hasselq. & Linn, Iter 
Paleest, 1757, p. 315. 

Vipera cornuta, Hasselq. Actes Soc. Reg. Sc. Upsal. 1751, p. 27. 

Coluber cerastes, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 376; Ellis, Phil. Trans. lvi. 1767, p. 287, pl. xiv. ; 
Gmelin, Linn. Syst. Nat. 13th ed. i. p. 1087; Bonnaterre, Encyclopéd. Méth., Ophiol. 1790, 
p- 20, pl. xxxv. fig. 1; Shaw, Nat. Mise. iv. 1792, pl. exxii.; id. Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, 1802, 
p- 385, pl. ciil. 

Beschasch Datan cornuta, Forskal, Descr. An. 1775, p. ix. 

Cerastes cornutus, Forskal, Descr, Anim. 1775, p. ix; Blgr. Trans. Linn. Soe. xiii. 1891, p. 155 ; 
Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, p. 502; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 125; 
Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xliii. 1893, p. 359, et xliv. 1894, p. 86; op. cit. xlvui. 
1897, p. 407; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 109. 

Le Céraste, Lacép. Hist. Nat. Serp. 1789, p. 72, pl. 1. fig. 1. 

Cerastes or Horned Viper, Bruce, Travels, v. Append. 1790, pp. 198-210, plate. 

Gehérnte Natter, Bechstein, Lacép. Naturgesch. Amph. iii. 1800-1802, p. 220, pl. ii. fig. 2. 

Vipera cerastes, Latr. Rept. ii. 1802, p. 318, pl. fig. 2; Daud. Rept. vi. 1803, p. 178, pl. 74. 
fig. 2; Eichw. Zool. Sp. iii. 1831, p. 172; part., Schlegel, Phys. Serp. 1837, p. 585, pl. xxi. 
figs. 12 & 18; Wagner’s Reis. Alg. iit. 1841, p. 1389; Eichw. Nouv. Mém. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 
ix. p. 488; Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 205; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) 
iv. 1862, no. 7, p. 72; op. cit. (vii.) xiv. 1869, no. 6, p. 108 et p. 138; Jan, Icon. Gen. 
livr. 45, Juin 1874, pl. v. fig. 1; Gasco, part., Viagg. in Egitto, pt. i. 1876, p. 120; Miiller, 
Verh. naturforsch. Ges. Basel, vi. 1878, p. 619; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1879, no. 3, 
p- 50; Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1880, p. 169; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1880, p. 308 ; 
Konig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, p. 25. 

Echidna atricauda, part., Dum. & Bibr, vii. 1854, p. 1480. 

Le Céraste, Cuv. Reg. An. 11. 1817, p. 85. 

Vipera (Echidna) cerastes, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 150. 

La Vipere céraste, Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, Descr. de Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 155, pl. vi. 
fig. 3. 

Le Céraste ou Vipére cornue, Cuv. Rég. An. il. nouv. éd. 1829, p. 91. 

Cerastes hasselquistii, Gray, Zool. Misc. 1842, p. 70; Cat. Snakes B. M. 1849, p. 28; Giinther, 
Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 268; Tristram, West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 147 ; Sclater, 
Snakes Ind. Mus. 1891, p. 68. 

Vipera (Cerastes) cerastes, Rippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 313; Boettger, Kobelt’s Reiseerin. 
Alg. u. Tunis, 1885, p. 463. 

Cerastes egyptiacus, Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 1440, pl. 78 bis, fig. 3; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 
1862, p. 278; Westphal-Castel. Cat. Col. Rept. 1869, p. 47. 

Vipera avicenne, Jan, Icon. Gén. livr. 45, Juin 1874, pl. v. fig. 3. 


' In the 12th ed. of the ‘Syst. Nat.’ Linnzus, in a footnote to p. 375, says of the above-named species :— 
“Vipera cornuta, Hasselg. Act. Up. 1750, p. 27, est fictitius Coluber astu Arabum, qui unguibus avicule 
pertuserunt caput eidemque inseruerunt.” 


Pl. XLVIU. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


le 


oe 


CERASTES CORNUTUS. 


g, Assiut. 


(SP) 
os 
joe 


CERASTES CORNUTUS. 


Males with horns. 
1g. Assiut. 
2 $. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 


Hornless males. 
¢. Luxor. 
6. Wadi Halfa. Major Henry d’Alton Harkness. 
¢. Ras Gharib. Mr. James Robertson. 


— ke 0 


Females with horns. 

Desert east of Suez Canal. 

Desert at Gizeh Pyramids. 

Desert, Luxor. 

Plain of Suakin. Colonel Sir C. Holled Smith, K.C.M.G., C.B. 


(Sl a 
+O +0 +40 +0 


Hornless females. 
5 @. Desert, Luxor. 


Hornless, sex unknown. 
1. Luxor. 
1. Wadi Halfa. Major Henry d’Alton Harkness. 
1. Ras Gharib. Mr. James Robertson. 


Snout broad and short, its length considerably less than the breadth between the 
eyes superiorly and anteriorly; rostral transversely linear, its height equalling about 
one-third of its breadth, deeply concave from side to side above its lower border; nasal 
plate small, separated from the rostral and first labial by generally two rows of scales ; 
nostril directed upwards and backwards; a slightly enlarged scale above the nasal ; 
nasals separated by six or seven scales; fifteen to twenty scales between the orbital 
margins superiorly; eye moderately large, its diameter considerably less than one-half 
the length of the snout, separated from the upper labials by about five rows of scales ; 
fourteen to eighteen scales round the eye; an erect, furrowed, slightly backwardly 
curved appendage above each orbit, equal to about the length of the snout, present 
or absent; usually a pair of juxtaposed enlarged rounded scales on the mesial line 
of the head slightly anterior to the eyes, and another similar pair on the occipital 
region, each scale with a strongly pronounced, central, tubercularly conical eminence ; 
scales on the upper surface of the head generally unequal, small, more or less round, 
with a short tubercular keel. 12-16 upper labials ; one pair of large oval chin-shields, 
separated by loose skin, in contact with three labials ; 28 to 35 rows of scales across the 
body. 130-165 ventrals (Egypt 140-151); anal single, rarely or partially divided ; 
subcaudals 28-42 (Egypt 29-40), more or less obtusely keeled posteriorly, terminal 
scale conical. General colour sandy yellow, either nearly uniform or with 30 to 36 
rows of dark brown spots, either in four or six oblique or transverse series, frequently 
confluent and in some producing a checkered appearance, the pale interspaces in some 

2u 2 


© 


32 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Oo 


having a more or less brownish tint; head immaculate or spotted with dark brown ; 
generally a dark brown oblique band from behind the eye, very distinct in some, obscure 
in others, and occasionally an oblique spot below the eye; under surface yellowish ; tip 
of tail occasionally blackish. 

It (¢ ) attains to 735 millim. in length, of which the tail forms 55 millim. 

This species is common on the margin of the desert along the Nile, and has been 
recorded from the Bayuda desert and as far south as Sennaar (Bruce). It occurs 
also along the shores of the Red Sea from Suez to Suakin, and is therefore probably 
distributed all over the region between the Nile and the Red Sea. On the west of that 
river it is in all likelihood spread over the entire Saharian desert and its oasis. Bruce 
found it to be extremely common in Cyrenaica, and it also occurs in Tunisia and Algeria. 
It is present in Arabia (Sinaitic Peninsula and Hadramut) and in Southern Syria. 

Its food consists of small rodents, such as members of the genera Mus, Gerbillus, 
and Jerboa. Bruce, on the only occasion in which he met with an animal in the 
stomach of this species, found a Jerboa !. 

Its habit is to conceal itself in the sand of the desert, only its eyes and the upper 
part of its head being visible. This was known to Pliny”, who, however, says that it 
often had two pairs of horns®, and that these organs were to entice birds* to it; and 
Belon fancied that he saw in them a resemblance to grains of barley! Daudin suggests 
that it was probably owing to this supposed likeness that Pliny and Solinus described 
the Cerastes as hiding under leaves. 

The majority of the specimens collected by me were dug out of holes that might 
have been tenanted by rodents. Bruce styles this viper the companion of the Jerboa, 
and there can be no doubt that it is generally found in localities in which that rodent 
abounds, associated with others, such as Mus and Gerbillus, all of which are either 
crepuscular or nocturnal in their habits, like the viper itself. Wilkinson ° mentions 
that he met with an example of this species on the island in the middle of Lake 
Merris, a rather remarkable place in which to find a viper, as these snakes do not, as a 
rule, enter water, at least they are generally credited with not doing so, According to 
Bruce this snake is able to endure the absence of food for a very long period, as 


» Travels, v. 1790, Appendix, p. 202. 

2 Hist. An. viii. 23. 

* Wilkinson (Anc. Egypt, ili. 1878, p. 339) mentions that snake-catchers in his day offered horned 
vipers for sale with four horns, the extra pair being clearly introduced beneath the scales. Others he 
mentions had occasionally long flowing hair on their heads. 

‘ Viperine snakes have not generally been credited with the above habit of capturing birds, but that 
the true vipers occasionally do so is proved beyond doubt by the fact recorded by Giinther that he removed 
a Savicola from the stomach of V. lebetina (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, p. 741). 

° Ancient Egyptians, ii. 1878, p. 339. 


CERASTES CORNUTUS. 333 


he mentions that he kept two in a glass jar, such as is used for sweetmeats, for 
two years without giving them any food. When disturbed, it attacks with great 
energy, throwing itself forward by a bound for some distance. At first it rasps its coils 
one against the other, producing the sound characteristic of itself and Echis, and 
when the irritation passes endurance the viper suddenly, by the rapid straightening of 
its body, launches itself forwards. I have stood with a crowd of Arabs around one of 
these vipers (all, however, at a respectful distance from it), and angered it with a long 
switch I carried with me to stun snakes, when it would spring forwards and scatter the 
crowd in every direction. Prosper Alpinus’s account of the snake described by him 
under the name Acontia or Jaculum recalls the horned viper. He says it was so called 
Jaculum because it darted like a spear and was very deadly, a description in no way 
applicable to the mild snake Erya, to which Hasselquist, having mistaken it for 
Cerastes, applied the term Jaculus. 

Little is known regarding the action or potency of the poison of this snake, or that 
of its fellow C. vipera. Bruce records a case of a snake-catcher bitten between the first 
finger and the thumb by a Cerastes cornutus that had sprung a distance of three feet 
and fastened itself on the man’s hand. The man so far from dying did not appear to 
suffer in any way from the bite, neither did he take any precautions against its effects. 
He was fully four hours under Bruce’s observation; and as he escaped any evil effects 
of the bite, are we to suppose that he had been immunized? The very snake 
that bit him was made by Bruce to bite a pelican in the thigh, and it died in 
thirteen minutes. He also relates that he saw a man at Cairo take hold of a Cerastes 
cornutus by the neck, that had previously killed a fowl, and beginning at its tail eat it just 
as one would eat a carrot or a stalk of celery. Drummond-Hay gives an almost similar 
account of a snake-eating performance he witnessed in Barbary, in which the man was 
bitten in the hands and neck by the poisonous snake he was devouring. Such cases as 
these merit recollection in view of the facts that have been recently adduced regarding 
the immunization of animals to snake-venom. 

The poison seems to be destructive to small mammals and to birds even as large as a 
pelican, but that it is deadly to man remains yet to be ascertained, and the same may 
be said of the poison of the little C. vipera. Berthoud! found that its bite was less 
dangerous than that of Vipera lebetina. es Me iene, 

Dr. Walter Innes informs me that the horned viper is known as willy Hm 9] b> tam 


~ 


=haiya hurra or haiya bikurin=horned snake. I have also heard it called \.. ees 


=haiya gebeli=snake of desert. Sir J. G. Wilkinson speaks of the hornless’ Cerastes 
cornutus as dashdsh, possibly the same word as beschasch of Forskal. 


' Rev. Zool. 1848, p. 74. 


ise) 
(3h) 
nse 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (in millim.) of C. cornutus, Hasselq. 


Sex, ak Tail, | Ventrals, | Anal. |Caudals.| Scales. Upper ‘felow berween Horns. Locality. 
ye landeyes. 

@ | 376 39 145 1 33 32 12 6, 7,8 5  |Horned. | Desert east of Suez 
2 | 300 | 38 148 1 | 39 | 28 | 12 |5,6,7,8/ 5 |Horned. Desert, Gizch 

3 | 735 | 55 146 1 |) 63 | Bs | i | Bao} B Moment ae 

3 | 540 73 142 1 38 28 13 7, 8, 9 5 |Hornless.| Desert near Luxor. 
2 | 495 | 64 149 1 AD | 82) | | GS | S |ktomles| - 
in| 953 || ea |) me | a | ey | mw | 8 | ear | Ss lone , 

g | 440 | 55 146 so) ey | 12 | Be 5 |Hornless.| _,, s 

@ | 485 | 31 151 1 | 65 || Sl | Sia) 680 | 8 lee i 

Q || 625 | 6) ES | t | al | so | S| 467 | S [Bonk . 

¢ | 233 | 28 144. 1 38 | 30 - ig 5,6,7 | 5 |Hornless. Be . 

2 | 723 | 76 151 1 a) | SA | i | 89 | 8 letomkes| 4 

@ | 598 | 57 149 il 29 33 i e 6,7,8 | 5 |Horned. % 

go | 335 41 149 1 40 32 13 i, O, 7 5 |Hornless.| Wadi Halfa. 
Juv.) 225 | 29 144 1 40 32 - ae 7,8,9,10/ 5 |Hornless.| ,, 4, 

@ | 486 50 144 1 29 35 12 | 6,7,8 5 |Horned. | Suakin. 

Q | 25 |) eB | my | 2 | a | | PEbGES| & ome | 

@ | 390 | 45 | 143 1 | 38 | 35 | 12 5,6,7,8) B= |Morned| 

3 | 360 | 42 142 1 BS | 85 | Sa| 28] SB |eometh , 

3 535 67 140 1 33 30 13 Ua 8, 9 5 |Horned. A 

3 514 62 141 1 35 32 a a 5, 6, 7 5 |\Hornless. ae chant Gulf 

BIG Mb vse 145 1 | 32 | 32 | 12 | 5,6,7 | 5  |Hornless. i Se FS 


- In Egyptian specimens there is very little variation in the number of the ventrals, as 
it only amounts to 9; but in the Hadramut, in Arabia’, there are as many as 164 
ventrals, although there is no corresponding increase in the number of the subcaudals. 


1 By an oversight this species was not included in my account of the reptiles collected in the Hadramut, 
on the expedition of the late Mr. Theodore Bent. 


CERASTES CORNUTUS. 335 


The presence or absence of horns does not depend on sex, as has been frequently 
supposed. 

In one of the females from Gizeh and in another from Suakin there is partial 
division of the anal. 

This species is distinguished from C. vipera by the scales between the eyes 
superiorly, around the eyes, between the labials and the eyes, and across the body 
being more numerous. It has also many more ventrals and subcaudals. A viper from 
Algeria described by Duméril and Bibron as Echidna atricauda is stated to have had 
150 ventrals, 35 subcaudals, and 35 rows of scales, numbers which preclude its having 
been an example of C. vipera, as the highest number of ventrals and subcaudals 
respectively as yet recorded in it are 122 and 26. ‘They had, however, before them 
specimens presented to the Paris Museum by Doctor Clot Bey, an Egyptian official, 
which, from the name they selected for the species, were probably C. vipera. 

The figure of this species as a hieroglyph occurs frequently on the monuments of 
Egypt. There is no evidence to prove that it was sacred to any god, but Herodotus 
states that it was found embalmed at Thebes. 


(Sy) 
ish) 
(or) 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


ECHIS. 
Echis, Merrem, Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 149. 


Body moderately long; tail short; head markedly distinct from the neck, covered 
above and on its sides with imbricate keeled scales; nostril directed upwards and out- 
wards ; nasal single or divided ; eye moderate, pupil vertical ; small scales between the 
eye and the labials ; supraocular narrow, present or absent. Scales 25-37 rows, longi- 
tudinal, imbricate, strongly keeled, oblique on the sides, smaller than the dorsal scales, 
with serrated keels; ventrals not laterally angulate ; anal entire ; subcaudals single. 


Ecuis cartnatus, Schneider. (Plate XLIX.) 


Horatta Pam, Russell, Ind. Serp. i. 1796, pl. ii. 

Pseudoboa carinata, Schneider, Hist. Amph. 11. 1801, p. 285. 

Boa horatta, Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. part 2, 1802, p. 309. 

Scytale bizonatus, Daud. Rept. v. 1803, p. 339, pl. Ixx. fig. 1. 

Vipera (Echis) carinata, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 149. 

Echis ziczac, Gray, Aun. Philos. new ser. x. 1825, p. 205. 

Echis arenicola, Boie, Isis, 1827, p.558; Gray, Zool. Misc. 1842, p. 70; Cat. Snakes B. M. 1849, 
p- 29; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) xiv. no. 6, 1869, pp. 117, 139; op. cit. (vil.) xxi. 
no. 4, 1873, p. 228; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. liv. 1879, no. 3, p. 50 ; Boettger, Ber. Senck. 
nat. Ges. 1880, p. 169; Lortet, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, iii. 1883, p. 187; Tristram, West. 
Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 147; Blgr. Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Zool. v. 1889, p. 104. 

Scythale pyramidum, Is. Geoftr. St.-Hil. Descr. de Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 152, pl. vii. 

fig. 1. 

Vipere, Audouin, Descr. de  Hgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1829, Suppl. pl. Rept. (1818) iv. figs. 11-14. 

Echis carinata, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1880, p. 177; Schinz, Naturgesch. Abbild., Rept. 1833, 
p. 180, pl. Ixxix. fig. 2; Guichenot, Lefebvre’s Voy. Abyss., Zool. vi. 1845-50, p. 215, pl. ii. ; 
Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 813; Gray, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1849, p. 29; Dum. & Bibr. 
vil. 1854, p. 1448, pl. Ixxxi. bis, fig. 3; Giimther, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 268; Rept. Brit. 
Ind. 1864, p. 397 ; Jan, Elenco, 1863, p. 122; Filippi, Viagg. in Persia, 1865, p. 8357; Theob. 
Journ. As. Soc. Beng. ex. no. xxxvii. pt. ii. 1868, p. 78; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vil.) 
xiv. no. 6, 1869, p. 121; Fayrer, Calcutta Med. Gaz., Dec. 1870, p. 241 ; Anderson, Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1871, p. 196 ; Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xl. pt. ii. 1871, p. 37; Stol. Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1872, 
pp- 84, 89 ; Fayrer, Thanatoph. Ind. 1872, p. 15, pl. xii. ; Nicholson, Ind. Snakes, 1874, p. 124, 
pl. xx. fig. 4; Blanf. East. Persia, Zool. ii. 1876, p.430; Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. 11. 1876, 
p- 120; Theobald, Cat. Rept. Brit. Ind. 1876, p. 218 ; Ferguson, Rept. Faun. Ceylon, 1877, p. 25 ; 
Miller, Verh. naturf. Ges. Basel, vi. 1878, pp. 620, 702 ; Giinth. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 978 ; 
Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mose. liv. 1879, no. 3, p. 50; Blanf. Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xlviii. pt. ii. 


Pl. XLIX. 


Reptiles of Egypt. 


ECHIS CARINATUS. 


3, Assiut. 


ECHIS CARINATUS. 307 


1879, p..116; Blanf. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 682; Vaillant, Faun. et Flor, Pays Comalis, 
1882, Rept. & Batr. p. 25; Murray, Zool. Sind, 1884, p. 388, pl. xi.; Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. 
ed Anfibi Mar Rosso, 1886, p. 34; Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1888-89, p. 305 ; Matschie, 
Zool. Jahrb. v. 1890, p. 617; Blgr. Fauna Brit. Ind., Rept. 1890, p. 422, fig.; Peracca, Boll. 
Mus. Zool. Comp. Anat. Torino, ix. no. 167, 1894, p. 17; Blgr. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, 
p- 155; Sclater, Snakes Ind. Mus. 1891, p.69; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soe. 1895, p. 657 ; 
Del Prato, Atti Soc. Ital. Sc. Nat. xxxv. 1895, p. 25; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom. Stud., 
Zool. v. 1896, p. 35. 

Echis pavo, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 157. 

Echis varia, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 160, pl. vii. fig. 2. : 

Vipera echis, Schlegel, Phys. Serp. ii. 1837, p. 583, pl. xxi. figs. 10 & 11; in Wagner’s Reisen in 

Algier, ui, 1841, p. 131. 
Echis frenata, Dum. & Bibr. vii. 1854, p. 1449, pl. lxxxi. bis, figs. 1 & 2; Pfeffer, Jahrb. Hamb. 
Wiss. Anst. x. 1893, p. 31. 

Coluber gariba, Seetzen, Reisen Syr., Palast. &c. 1855, ed. iii. p. 447. 

Toxicoa arenicola, Giinther, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 268. 

Vipera carinata, Jan, Rev. et Mag. Zool. (Guérin) (2) ix. 1859, p. 153; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. 

Pétersb. (vii) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 73. 

Vipera (Echis) superciliosa, Jan, Rev. et Mag. Zool. (Guérin) (2) ix. 1859, p. 156. 

Echis carinata, var. frenata, Jan, Elenco, 1863, p. 122. ; 

Eichis superciliosa, Jan, Klenco, 1863, p. 122. 

Echis carinatus, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, p. 505; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p.217; Anderson, 
Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 55 & 110; Bien Ann. Mus. Civ. Conor XVIl. (XXXvil.) 
1896-97, p. 280. 

g andl 9. Mokattam Hills, Cairo. Dr. Walter Innes. 

g. Assiut. 

-g and] ?. Suakin. Colonel Sir Charles Holled Smith, C.B., K.C,M.G. 

9. Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 

$,2 9, and 5juv. Suakin. 

g andl ¢?. Durrur. 

@. Oasis of Siwah. A. R. Birdwood, Esq. 

Snout short, broad and rounded, its length less than the anterior interorbital breadth ; 

rostral very much broader than high; nasal generally divided, in contact with rostral 

and first labial, and usually a small supranasal, separated from the second labial by 

a single scale ; a supraocular sometimes present ; eyes separated above by from 10 to 15 

scales; 11 to 20 scales around the eye, and two or three scales between it and the 

upper labials ; 10 to 12 upper labials, exceptionally 9 or 13. One pair of chin-shields 
in contact with three or four labials, followed by two to five pairs either of small 
square shields or scales. 25 to 37 rows of scales across the body; 132-195 ventrals; 
anal 1; subcaudals 23-48. ‘The upper surface generally dark brown or some tint of 
brown, with 36 to 40 irregular whitish, yellowish, or greyish-yellow transverse bands 
of varying breadth, more or less dilated in the mesial line, and uniting with one another 
on the sides, thus defining off a lateral line of more or less triangular dark brown areas, 
2X 


aH HY oR Pe eR 


338 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


each alternate with the dark brown areas of the back; the front line of dorsal scales 
more or less spotted with black; head generally brown, with a varying number of 
yellowish or greyish-yellow bands, reducing the brown colour to a well-defined, 
almost black band behind the eye, a spot below the eye, and to a few irregular bands, 
lines, or spots on the upper surface of the head, sometimes assuming the form of 
cruciform markings. Under surface white, with some black spots on the angles 
of the ventrals and some indistinct spots on the mesial line; on the subcaudals the 
spots tend to arrange themselves as a median longitudinal band or line. 

The foregoing is the general colour of this viper in Egypt, but in India the dark 
brown of the upper surface is frequently lost, and of the pale transverse bands only the 
mesial dorsal dilatation remains as a white spot with a dark margin, while their lateral 
portions assume more or less the character of ocelli. 

It attains to 830 millim. in length, of which the tail forms 184 millim. 

It is not common in the neighbourhood of Cairo (Mokattam Hills and around the 
Pyramids of Gizeh). It is especially abundant at Suakin and Durrur. It is found in 
Abyssinia, Somaliland, Nubia, and as far south as Lake Stephanie, and ranges westwards 
to Togoland, and is in all likelihood spread all over Africa north of the Equator. In 
Asia it is present in Arabia and Southern Palestine to Transcaspia, and eastwards to 
Singhbhum, in Bengal, and southwards in India to the Carnatic. 

It is not confined to arid or semi-arid plains and rocky hillsides, but it is common 
on the sandy, grassy, and acacia-studded plains of Suakin and Durrur, and in India? it 
is met with on sandy but forest-land in the Godaveri valley. It is generally found under 
stones. It is nocturnal in its habits, and, according to Dr. Giinther, Scolopendrw form 
part of its food, as he has removed their remains from its stomach. Dr. Stoliczka says 
that it feeds almost exclusively on insects. 

It-is known to the natives of Egypt as ay 2 = ghariba. 


‘ Some startling statistics regarding the profusion in which this species is alleged to occur in the Ratnagiri 
district in the Konkan, on the east coast of India to the south of the city of Bombay, have been published 
by Mr. G. W. Vidal, C.S. (Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. v. 1890, pp. 64-71). He says “it may be safely 
concluded that of the whole number of snakes annually destroyed throughout British India,” and which for 
1885 and 1886 he puts down at 420,044 and 417,596 respectively, “ considerably more than one-half, 
consisting almost exclusively of individuals of the Echis species, are killed at Ratnagiri alone!” (the sign 
of exclamation is Mr, Vidal’s and is very appropriate and significant). Taking the number of snakes 
destroyed in the Ratnagiri district in a period of six years at Mr. Vidal’s annual average of 225,721, and 
dividing this by 365, for the days of the year, we are to understand from Mr. Vidal’s statistics that more 
than 618 vipers were daily destroyed in his district. When the price for each Echis carinatus was tentatively 
raised by the Government, in 1862, to two annas a specimen, we are told that 115,921 were “ killed and 
brought in for rewards in Ratnagiri within eight days (December 2nd to 10th)!” The only rational 
explanation of these statistics is that a mistake occurred somewhere. Unless every snake was effectually 
destroyed when it was paid for, the mounting up of the numbers captured and submitted for payment 


could be easily accounted for. 


ECHIS CARINATUS. 339 


Sir J. Fayrer—whose experiments, on the influence of snake-poison on animals, 
brought him in contact with nearly all the poisonous snakes of India—describes this 
viper as naturally sluggish until roused, when it immediately places itself in a position 
of offence and defence, becomes very irascible and active, rapidly moves the coils of 
its body on one another, producing the loud rustling so characteristic of it and Cerastes, 
and darts on its prey a considerable distance—a foot or more—striking with great 
fierceness and unerring aim. 

The venom of this viper, according to the same authority, destroys life rapidly in 
small mammals and birds, but as the snake is of small size it is perhaps less likely to 
be fatal to man. The deadly effect, however, of its poison on pigeons, fowls and dogs 
led him to regard it with peculiar dread. A few cases have been recorded of human 
beings succumbing to the poison of this viper; but when the evidence adduced in 
support of them is investigated, I think, it can be said with all truth that no alleged 
instance of death resulting in man from the venom of Z. carinatus has been supported 
by evidence in which no flaw can be detected. ‘There can be no doubt, however, that 
in India, where this species is so common, it has the popular reputation of being a 
snake deadly to man. 

After the foregoing was in type, I thought it as well to have the opinion of my 
friend Dr. D. D. Cunningham on this matter. He at once acceded to my request, 
and I am consequently indebted to him for the following note :— 


“Tam sorry to say that I can give you very little information regarding the poison of Echis carinatus. 
I had very great difficulty in procuring live specimens, and those which I did get hold of were consequently 
too valuable to allow of my taking venom from them, more especially as the quantity of venom to be 
obtained from any individual is so small that, in order to procure an efficient standardized working stock, 
one would have had to have employed a very large number of specimens. 

‘“‘ The only experiments, therefore, which I tried were conducted by causing the snakes to bite fowls and 
other small animals, and the results merely served to demonstrate that the poison produced effects parallel 
to those produced by Daboia-venom, and consequently quite distinct ones from those caused by Cobra- 
venom. 

“The symptoms, as in the case of Daboia-intoxication, are primarily those of acute nervous irritation, 
which, where the dose of venom is relatively a large one, culminate in acute general convulsions and death 
within 10 minutes at utmost. Where a fatal result does not occur, the irritation is followed by profound 
nervous exhaustion, and this may either be succeeded by recovery or by the incidence of what appears to be 
of the nature of general septicemia accompanied by a tendency to the occurrence of diffuse hemorrhages. 

‘«« Where the dose of venom is too small to occasion general convulsions, or where a dose, large enough to 
cause the latter when administered in concentrated form, is diluted beyond a certain limit, the only 
symptoms present are, as a rule, those of local nervous irritation at the site of the introduction of 
the poison. 

“Cumulative introduction of small doses never leads to the development of general convulsions, but, 
if pushed far enough, induces the induction of the septicemic condition. 

“T never heard of a case of Echis-bite giving rise to acute general convulsions in the human subject, and 
I do not believe that the amount of yenom yielded by the bite of any specimen of Hchis can ever be large 
enough to produce such a result. 


DW xe 


340 


Tail. 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. of E. carinatus, Schneider (in millim.). 


tras, |candals,| Seales. 
149 23 29 
158 26 27 
141 28 29 
132 25 27 
137 25 27 
139 25 27 
145 28 25 
171 31 31 
153 28 31 
155 31 31 
163 28 33 
179 34 33 
163 31 33 
168 31 31 
173 28 31 
184 31 35 
184 3l 35 
174 32 30 
192 30 35 
173 34 37 
174 37 35 
185 33 35 
178 35 33 
184 32 32 


Nasals. 


to 


to bw 


bo 


Nasals 
Bae cde) penaae Locality. 
nasals, 
C.R.!} 11—11 |L.10, R.11) Anamalai Mountains. 
ie 13—13 10—11 j 0 ” 
4 13—13 10—10 | Madras. 
7 15—15 9—9 Dekhan. 
» |L.15,R.13) 9—9 a 
> | wa || 108 ‘. 
+s 12—12 10—11 # 
5 16—16 12—12 5 
5 18—20 12—11 | Mahabaleshwar 
te Gly || 1O—a a 
| Gene) | Tle 7 
_ 16-16 || 12-13 | Disa. 
a 15—16 10—12 | Karachi. 
” ” 
a 15—17 11—11 | Sind. 
» (oo | Ba | , 
is 18—19 11—11 Ps 
i 14—17 11—11 | W.of Bampur, Baluchistan. 
» | tee | 8 — i 
by 1919 11—12 { a es ae and the 
- 17—17 12—11 | Chilgez, Afghanistan. 
15—16 12—12 | Askabad. 


” 


Ak-Tjube (Strauch). 


” 


” 


* Tn contact with rostral. 


Tail. 


Ven- 
trals. 


Sub- 
caudals, 


ECHIS CARINATUS. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Nasals 
Seales. | Nosals.| area. | romd eye, | labios 

nasals. 
34 OL TR, 
34 Fs 
33 Es 
a7 || 2 » | W—17 | 1-11 
oy | 2 » | i—17 | l—i1 
Bf al » | 18-16 | 12-11 
31 1 >» | 118 |) 1O—10 
31 1 > |) Way | hain | 
BB Ie al » | 1O=8 |) Wea 
| 2 > | UG Saal 
58 | » | 1G | ila 
35 | 2 6 [TGS | an 
MM | o » | TSS || Ty 
Slee 2 5 |, ICS No TNS} 
34 | 2 » | 15-15 | 11-12 
oH |) it > | TNs 1-12 
Ses > | GSS18 |. Daa 
Sie > | ee |. HOO 
sp || a ~ | 8 |) 1016 
|g , 15—15 9—10 
29.| 2 > ti ale | 1O=n0 
25.1 2 > (G8 | TO, 
28-| 2 » |i | iw 
30 | 2 5 |) Te PTO 
99 | 2 >» | RESIS | Tb 
27 | 2 way |) 


Locality. 


Krasnovodsk (Strauch). 


Seistan, Persia. 
Nasirabad, Seistan, Persia. 


Jask,'S. Persia. 


| 


Hadramut. 
Aden. 
Suakin. 


THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


Measurements &c. (continued). 


Nasals 
Tere || Teste | fiver leatate | Seales | Nasalee| feces seerteeatl nates 
nasals. 

CAO | OO || 162) 88 |) BO 1 & IC) teeaG | mag 
1G3 | 12 |) ieR |) BO || sO || » |i 105 | Til 
OO || G3 | 186.) 3 | so |} & 5 | ear || san 
120 | 1S | ie7 || #8 | sl | gs 5 | fm | 1 
163) 16 | 163) 88 | 23 ] 2 2 11g || OT 
Gy || S|) Wea || BS |) 6 |) 5 aS | wa 
oH | al | tol | 63 | sl | 2 5 | 166 | Dilan 
AO) || 253 | 78 |) Gl | oy | o » | T6018 | Qlem 
5 || By | WO | 3 | a0 | & » |) Messe | Tila 
AG || 89 || 1B || 86 || 28 | » || bh | 119 
GO || 63 | 1A | ea | op |) o » ||) Way | ial 
BP) || 9 | 16g | SB | so | 2 > | 166) | 7153 
HO || Ol || WB | sy | 2) | > | mane | 1 

Gy || Bx || Bir 59 
445 168 O83 |) a i eS |) a 
305 | 27 | 168 | 302] 28 | 2 > | 1 | IT 

168 | 36 | 28 . 

173 | 38 | 28 ¢ 
38 |) G3 | We || ey | 2 || 2 > | 16h | 119 

Gi? || EB | 80 e 

182 | 31 | 28 2 

153 || Sil || Gi . 
496 | 59 | 168 | 39 | 28 | 2 5 | aS) Te 
397 | 43, | 145 | 29 | 29 | 2 5 |) ETB | 1O=i0 
486) 1950). || 48a) 26) coil eee 5 | i! || OT) 


Locality. 


Durrur. 
99 


” 
Assiut. 


Mokattam Hills. 


” ” 


Egypt (Strauch). 


» (Strauch). 


” ” 


» (Strauch). 


” ” 


Barbary. 
West Africa. 


ECHIS CARINATUS. 343 


“The doubtful question is in regard to the possibility of the induction of chronic septicemic intoxication. 
In Northern India there is a generally diffused belief that such intoxication is liable to occur ; and Alcock ? 
assured me that he once met with a case in which it unequivocally was present. On the other hand, 
however, Elliot *, who tried many experiments in Madras, affirms that he found that coolies, whilst full of 
fear of the bite of Daboias, had no dread whatever of Hchis-bites, and were quite willing to allow themselves 
to be bitten as a matter of experiment. 

“ My own belief is that there are only two kinds of snake-venom—a colubrine and a viperine one,—and 
that any differences in the phenomena attending the bites of different species of colubrine and viperine 
snakes are simply determined by differences in the amount of toxic material present, the amount being 
dependent partly on the bulk of venom available and partly on the ratio of toxic material to bulk; ¢.g., the 
common krait has a large quantity of very potent venom to dispose of, the banded krait has a relatively 
small quantity of feeble material. 

“Tam sorry that I cannot give you more definite information, and I doubt much whether you will be 
able to get any of a really trustworthy nature.” 


The following is an analysis of the table (pp. 340-342) :— 


Range of ventrals. Range of subcaudals. Locality. 
132-171 23-31 8. India. 
163-184 28-34 N.W. India. 
173-192 30-37 Baluchistan to Transcaspia. 
172-189 28-37 Persia. 
159-184 30-48 S.E. Arabia. 
172-195 30-438 Suakin, &c. 
167-184 31-37 Egypt. 
145-168 26-39 W. Africa. 


As a rule, two enlarged scales or, more properly, small plates are present behind the 
rostral, and thus separate the nasals, but not unfrequently they become broken up. 
The nasals throughout the series vary from one to two, but two is the prevalent 
number—7. é., complete division of the nasal shield generally takes place. In some 
cases a small scale occurs close to the nostril, which is perforated in a single shield; 
and in other instances a scale of this kind becomes united to the nasal and defines 
part of the nostril, while in others as many as two such scales are present. In some 
instances there is union of the nasal and first labial. The chin-shields are succeeded 
by a variable number of scales or plates in pairs. 

In the type of Echis coloratus, Gthr., from Arabia, the nasal and supranasals are 
excluded from the rostral by three small scales; the upper labials are 13; there are 
17 to 19 scales around the eye; there are 32 scales around the body ; 207 ventrals and 
47 caudals. Two specimens from the Dead Sea, three from Maskat, three from the 
Hadramut, and one from Socotra present the general features of the type of E. coloratus ; 


* Indian Med. Gazette, xxiii. 1889, p. 175. 
* Indian Med. Record, ix. 1895, p. 207. 


544 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 


but in one from the first-mentioned locality the so-called supranasal is in contact with 
the rostral, but the nasal is excluded by two small scales, and in one from Maskat the 
nasal is broadly in contact with the rostral as in E. carinatus. In ZL. coloratus, as in 
the latter species, the arrangement of the plates defining the rostral is very varied. In 
some the single nasal is partially divided by three imperfect sutures, and the supranasal 
occasionally divides, or may be amalgamated with, the scales that usually separate it 
from the rostral. The supraocular is absent in vipers referred to E. coloratus, but 
it is sometimes much reduced in size in H. carinatus, or is even entirely absent. The 
differences that exist between £. coloratus and LE. carinatus are so trifling that they 
do not appear to merit more than variety rank, 


1 aU39, 


BAT IR AC lal NIN S (le is Gilet, 


BATRACHIA ECAUDATA. 
Suborder PHANEROGLOSSA. 


Series A. FIRMISTERNIA. 


RANIDZ. 


RANA. 
Rana, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 354; Blgr. Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1882, p. 6. 

Tongue free, deeply emarginate posteriorly; vomerine teeth present. Pupil hori- 
zontal ; tympanum distinct or hidden by the skin; glandular folds present or absent ; 
fingers free; toes more or less webbed, tips simple or dilated; external metatarsi 
webbed to the base; terminal phalanges elongate, acute, with or without transverse 
dilatations; omosternum and sternum with a long bony style. 


RaNa ESCULENTA, Linn. 
Rana esculenta, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 357; Miiller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vil. 1882, p. 129. 


Vomerine teeth in two nearly transverse rows between the choane; snout variable, 
more or less triangular or rounded; tympanum distinct, nearly as large as the eye; 
upper eyelid broader than the space between the eyes} skin“smooth or with small 
warts; a well-developed lateral glandular fold, with additional short narrow glandular 
folds in some ; hind limbs moderately long, variable, the tibio-tarsal joint reaching to 
near the snout; tibia as long as, or even considerably shorter than, the foot measured 
from the outer metatarsal tubercle; fingers moderately long, the first slightly longer 
than the second ; toes broadly webbed ; subarticular tubercles of digits well developed ; 
outer metatarsal tubercle small, occasionally very feebly developed ; inner metatarsal 
tubercle very variable, small or prominent, blunt or strongly compressed, shovel- 
shaped. 

AY 


346 THE BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 


General colour varying from bright green, blue, or olive to uniform brown; spotted 
or marbled with olive-brown or blackish, sometimes forming longitudinal bands on 
the back; usually three pale dorsal stripes ; limbs spotted or barred with olive-brown 
or blackish, the hinder sides of the thighs marbled with blackish, sometimes with bright 
yellow or orange; occasionally a pale line along the inside of the tibia near the upper 
surface ; vocal sacs coloured grey to white. 

Mr. Boulenger, who has so largely contributed to our knowledge of the races of this 
species of frog, recognizes four, viz. ridibunda’, typica, lessonew, and nigromaculata. 
The first-mentioned variety, to which the frogs of North Africa are referable 2, is 
distinguished from the typical form by the smaller size of its inner metatarsal tubercle, 
and by its proportionally longer tibiz, this latter character sufficing to separate it from 
all the other races. It has generally a green vertebral line. It attains to a great size 
in Germany, females from snout to vent measuring 104 mm., and males 98 mm.; but 
the Algerian frogs are not much smaller, as in the British Museum there is a female 
from Biskra 96 mm. in length. 

It is distributed over Europe (with the exception of North-western and Central 
Italy), Western Asia as far east as Eastern Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan, 
and over Northern Africa from Egypt to the coast of Morocco (Casa Blanca), and 
extends to the island of Madeira. In the Algerian region it is found in the Sahara as 
far south as Wargla. 

Hitherto only one specimen has been recorded from Egypt. It was mentioned by 
F. Miller so long ago as 1882%, but I am indebted to Mr. Boulenger for the 
information that the British Museum lately came into the possession of one individual 
obtained at Alexandria by the late M. Letourneux. It is a small male, 56 mm. from 
snout to vent. The snout is rather broadly rounded, compared with some specimens 
from Algeria. It is of a brownish-olive colour, and the dark spots are rather obscure. 


RANA MASCARENIENSIS, Dum. & Bibr. (Plate L. fig. 1.) 


Grenouille verte, var., Audouin, Descr. de ’ Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1829, p. 182, Suppl. Rept. pl. i1. 
figs. 11 1-113. 

Grenouille verte, var. a dos blanc, Audouin, op. cit. p. 182, pl. ii. figs. 121 & 122. 

Rana esculenta, var., Linn., Audouin, op. cit. p. 182. 

Rana mascareniensis, Dum. & Bibr. viii. 1841, p, 350; Bell, Zool. Beagle, Rept. 1843, p. 32, pl. vi. 
fig. 2; Giinther, Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1858, p. 18; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1866, p. 891; 


‘ Rana ridibunda, Pallas, Reise, i. 1771, p. 458; Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc, 1885, p. 666, pl. xl. 

> Proc. Zool. Soc. 1891, p. 374 ; conf. Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. Mose. 1889, p. 242, who recognized five races, 
as he considered the Spanish—North-African frogs to merit subspecific rank. 

* Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, p. 129. 


Batrachia of Egypt. 


H.Grénvold del.et hth. 


PLL. 


RANA MASCARENIENSIS. Fig. 1 2, Nile overflow, Gizeh. BUFO VIRIDIS. Fig. 2 ?, Ramleh, Alexandria. 


BuFo REGULARIS. Fig. 3 ¢, Assuan. BUFO PENTONI. 


Fig. 4 2, Shaata Gardens, Suakin. 


ce 


Oy 


- basi 1 ¥ n i ‘ 
<y D ” 7 i « - " en 
‘ heal ih Tne Ei) a2 
fel ne 
‘ 
i ¥ 
‘ 
a 4 
' 
Sent 
‘ 4 
, 
cust) 
ie ; 
rt 
uy 
t ry 
0 
j 
‘ 
1 . ‘ 


RANA MASCARENIENSIS. 347 
Lataste, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1879, p. 91; Boulenger, id. op. cit. p. 92; Peters, Sitzb. 
Ges. naturf. Fr. Berl. 1881, p. 162; Blgr. Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1882, p. 52 & p. 460; 
Miller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, p. 180; et op. cit. 1884, p. 275 et p. 670; et id. op. 
1884, vill. p. 253; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1888, p. 51; Héron-Royer & Van Bambeke, 
Arch. Biol. p. 252, pl. xvi. figs. 1-3; Boettger, Cat. Batr. Mus. Senck. 1890, p. 10; Pfeffer, 
Jahrb. Hamb. Wissen. Anst. x. 1893, p. 22; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 88; Bocage, 
Herpét. @Angola et du Congo, 1895, p. 160; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xv. (xxxv.) 
1895, p. 16; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 5389; Giinther, Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) xv. 1895, 
p- 526; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 554; Anderson, Herpet. 
Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 110; Bocage, Jorn. Se. Nat. Ac. Se. Lisb. (2) iv. no. 14, 1896, 
pp. 80, 96; Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 217; Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xvii. (xxxvii.) 
1897, pp. 14, 22, 280; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 801; Tornier, Kriechth. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. 
1897, p. 92. 

Rana bibronii, Hallowell, Proc. Ac. Philad. 1845, p. 249; Giinther, Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1858, 
p- 18; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1863, p. 78. 

Rana fuscigula, var. (non Dum. & Bibr.), Riippell, part., Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 314. 

Rana mossambica, Peters, Bericht Berl. Ak. 1854, p. 626. 

Rana nilotica, Seetzen, Reise durch Syrien, Palast., Aegypt. &c. 1855, iii. p. 490; Peters, Mon. 
Berl. Ak. 1863, p. 78; id. op. 1866, p. 891; Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Fr. Berl. 1881, p. 162. 

Rana savigny2, Jan, Cenni Mus. Civ. Milano, 1857, p. 52. 

Rana supercitaris, Giinther, Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1858, pp. 17 & 132, pl. i. fig. B. 

Rana ide, Steind. Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 1864, p. 266, pl. 12. fig. 1. 

Rana nigrescens, Steind. op. cit. p. 268, pl. 12. fig. 2. 

Rana anchieta, Bocage, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 843; Peters, Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Fr. Berl. 1881, 
_p. 162. 

Rana porosissima, Steindach." Novara Amph. 1867, p. 18, pl. i. fig. 9. 

Rana subpunctata, Bocage, Jorn. Sc. Lisboa, 1868, i. p. 73; Herp. d’Angola et du Congo, 1895, 
p. 161. 

Rana abyssinica, Peter, Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Fr. Berl. 1881, p. 163. 

Rana esculenta, part., Miller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, p. 129. 

Rana mascareniensis et var. ide, Miiller, Ver. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, p. 130. 

Rana marchit, Rochebrune, Bull. Soc. Philom. (7) ix. 1885, p. 90. 

5g and 59. Fields below Gizeh Pyramids. 

2@ and 19. Mahallet el Kebir. George Kent, Esq. 

44 and1¢@. Freshwater Canal, Suez. 


Vomerine teeth internal to the inner and anterior border of the choane and in a 
narrow somewhat oblique line; snout pointed, rather short, its length very variable, 
usually equal to the interval between the eyes anteriorly ; nostril nearer to the extremity 
of the snout than to the eye; tympanum nearly as large as the eye. First finger 
shorter than the second ; fifth toe longer than the third or subequal; toes about two- 
thirds webbed ; a small tubercle at the base of the first toe; hind limbs very variable 
in length ; the tibio-tarsal joint, when the limb is laid forwards, reaches either to or 


* Conf. Bocage, Jorn. Sc. Lisboa, xi. 1887, p. 191. 


348 THE BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 


beyond the tip of the snout or halfway between the latter and the eye ; openings of the 
vocal sacs either parallel to the lower jaw or placed slightly obliquely, the posterior 
extremity of the orifice lying immediately below the angle of the lower jaw. Upper 
surface of body with glandular folds, one on each side, from behind the eye to the 
groin, and six other folds between them either interrupted or continuous; a strong 
glandular fold from the eye and tympanum to the shoulder. 

General colour greyish olive or brownish olive above, with dark spots on the back, 
which has occasionally a pale vertebral stripe, and with dark spots and bars on the limbs ; 
generally a pale line along the back of the thigh margined with black; throat and 
chest more or less dusky or livid, the remainder of the under surface pure white. 


¢. Snout to vent 41 mm., vent to tip of fourth toe 74 mm., eye to snout 7-6 mm. 
g = eB) 47-7 a” 2? a9 82 > » 8 »” 


This and the previous species are the only representatives of the genus in Lower 
Egypt}. It is very common in the backwaters and canals and is found throughout 
the entire valley of the Nile, but it is not present at Suakin. It occurs in suitable 
localities, as a rule, throughout the entire continent ?. 

It is known to the natives as ssl gots, dofdah el moia, or water-frog, in contra- 
distinction to the toads ; but according to Seetzen ? it is known in Egypt as ed backrur. 

An adolescent frog in the British Museum from the Isle of France has the snout 
very much the same as in the frogs from Egypt, possesses similarly proportioned limbs 
and digits, glandular folds of a like character, and the orifices of the vocal sacs running 
parallel to the lower jaw as in the Nilotic frogs. Its colour also is much the same as 
in the Egyptian frogs, and, as in some of them, there is a pale vertebral line. Two 
young frogs from Madagascar, in the same collection, resemble the frogs from Gizeh 
and Mahallet el Kebir in the details of their structure and coloration, while four 
others from the same island resemble the frogs from Alexandria in having a white 
vertebral line. Three specimens from Nossi Bé, and two others from Ankafana in 
Madagascar, present the two types of coloration found in Egypt and are in no way 
separable specifically from the Egyptian frogs. 

A male and female from Taita, East Africa, have also all the structural characters of 


* Dr. Steindachner has recorded (Reise Freg. Novara, Amphibien, 1867, p. 8) a species of Rana from 
Kordofan, viz. Pyaicephalus cordofanus=R. cordofana, but from what part of the province has not been 
stated. It is allied to the Southern and Eastern African R. delalandit. 

Peters in his account of the Reptiles and Batrachians collected by (the late) Baron von Barnim and by 
Dr. R. Hartmann on their expedition to the Sennaar district recorded the occurrence there of another genus 
of the family Ranide, viz. Cassina, and considered the species to be C. senegalensis, Dum. & Bibr. ; but it 
may possibly prove to be the form found in Shoa and Somaliland, viz. C. obscura, Blgr. (Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1895, p. 644, pl. xxxix. fig. 3). 

* Héron-Royer and Van Bambeke, in their communication on the buccal apparatus of the tadpoles of 
certain species of frogs and toads, quoted in the foregoing and following synonymy, give a list of the species 
they describe, and by an unfortunate oversight characterize all of them as European. The list includes 
Rana mascareniensis, Bufo reqularis, and Bufo pantherinus, not one of which is European. 

+ Op. cit. iii. p. 490. 


RANA MASCARENIENSIS. 349 


R. mascareniensis, but with this exception, that the orifices of the vocal sacs which in 

frogs from Kgypt and Madagascar run parallel to the lower jaw are in them placed 

obliquely to it, being directed downwards and backwards to below the shoulder. Frogs 
presenting this type of vocal sac are found in Abyssinia, Wadelai, Lamu, north of 
Zanzibar, in the Gaboon District, and in Sierra Leone. All of them have the fifth 

toe longer than the third, as in Egyptian specimens. ‘The British Museum possesses 

two frogs from Angola with the orifices of the vocal sacs oblique. One of them has 

the fifth toe longer than the third, whereas the other has these proportions reversed, 

and yet they seem to be specifically identical. Their hind limbs are somewhat longer 

than in the frogs from Egypt, Madagascar, and other parts of Africa referable to this 

species, but it is only a question of degree. 

The slight difference in the way in which the vocal sac opens in relation to the 
ramus of the lower jaw, ¢.¢. whether it is straight or oblique in position, cannot well 
be regarded as more than an illustrative variation when all the other features of these 
frogs are duly considered. 

Frogs with the vocal sacs opening in a straight line are met with in Egypt, the Isle 
of France, and Madagascar, while those with them more or less oblique occur in 
Abyssinia, the Upper Nile (Wadelai), Kast Africa, West Africa, and Angola. 

In the two series the fifth toe is longer than the third, or the two are equal, or this 
proportion may even be reversed, so great is variation in this detail. 

Professor Peters held a distinctly opposite view to that here expressed, as he not 
only regarded the Nilotic frog as a good species, but he also upheld the specitic 
distinctness of . mossambica, Peters, R. bibroni, Hallow., and &. porosissima, 
Steindach., and went even further and described the Abyssinian frogs as representing a 
valid species. 

The frog-headed deity Batrachocephalus or Ka was a form of Ptah, the Lord of 
‘Truth, particularly in relation to the creation of man. There was also a frog-headed 
goddess Hegqa, the wife of Nun or Khnum, the male and female principle of water, and 
the celestial water or abyss. 

According to Horapollo a frog was emblematical of renewed birth. It appears as a 
symbol to form the base of the palm-branch of years held by Thoth, as the deity who 
presided over the life of man. At Thebes it was sacred to the goddess Heqa. ‘The 
figure of a tadpole occurs as a hieroglyph. Besides its proper meaning (fn) tadpole, 
it had the transferred signification hundred thousand. From the fact. that frogs were 
embalmed at Thebes it is evident that some peculiar belief was attached to them. 


The Kngystomatide are represented in Kordofan by the genus Hemisus (Ginther, Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 
1858, p. 47) and by a species which Dr. Steindachner named (Sitz. Ak. Wien, xlviii. Abth. i. 1863, p. 191, 
pl. i. figs. 10-13) Kakophrynus sudanensis and (Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xiv. 1864, p. 284) Hemisus 
sudanense. An example of this species is preserved in the British Museum, and another in the Vienna 
Museum. The former was obtained in Kordofan, and the latter in the Sudan, but in what part of it is 
seemingly unknown. 


350 THE BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 


Series B. ARCIFERA. 


BUFONID. 


BUFO. 
Bufo, Laurenti, Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 25, part.; Blgr. Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1882, p. 281. 


Tongue free, entire, not retractile posteriorly ; no vomerine teeth ; pupil horizontal ; 
tympanum distinct or hidden by the skin, rarely absent; parotoids present or absent ; 
head with or without bony ridges ; skin generally more or less warty; fingers free ; 
toes more or less webbed, with simple or slightly dilated tips; external metatarsi not 
separated by a web ; omosternum generally absent; sternum either cartilaginous or with 
a fibro-cartilaginous or nearly bony style; diapophyses of sacral vertebra more or less 
dilated ; coccyx attached by two condyles. 


(Loads without cranial ridges.) 


Buro viripis, Laur. (Plate L. fig. 2.) 


Bufo viridis, Laur. Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 27 et p. 111, pl. i. fig. 1; Sparrmann, Vetensk. Ak. Hand. 
Stockh. xvi. 1795, p. 183, pl. vii.; Schn. Hist. Amph. i. 1799, p. 200; Latr. Hist. Rept. ii. 
1800, p. 115; Hist. Salam. de France, 1800, p. xli; Daud. Hist. Rain. 1802, p. 79, pl. 28. 
fig. 2; Daud. Hist. Rept. vii. 1803, p. 156; Licht. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1823, p. 106; Bibron 
& Bory de St. Vincent, Expéd. Sc. Morée, Zool. Rept. &c. iii. 17 pt. 1888, p. 75, pl. xv. 
3° sér. fig. 2 ¢ & fig. 3 9; Géné, Mem. R. Ac. Se. Torino, ser. 2, i. 1839, p. 280; Bonap. 
Icon. Fauna Ital. 11. 1838, pl. fig. 1; part., Dum. & Bibr. viii. 1841, p. 681; Guichen., 
Lefebvre, Voy. Alger, v. 1850, p. 27; Giinther, Cat. Batr. Sal. 1858, p. 58; Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1859, p. 470; Strauch, Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. (vii.) iv. no. 7, 1862, p. 79; Steind. Unger 
& Kotschy’s Insel Cypern, 1865, p. 572; Steind. Novara Amph. 1867, p. 39; Carruccio, 
Atti Soc. Ital. Se. Nat. xii. 1869, p. 567; Collin, Natur. Tids. (3) vi. 1869, p. 8336; Westph.- 
Castelnau, Cat. Rept. 1869, p. 54; Stoliczka, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxxix. pt. ii. 1870, 
p. 155 ; Anderson, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xl. pt. ii. 1871, p.38; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 402 ; 
Fatio, Vert. Suisse, Rept. et Batr. iii. 1872, p. 411; Koch, Ber. Senck. Ges. 1872, p. 170; 
Stoliezka, Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1872, p. 118; De Betta, Faun. Ital., Rett. Anfib. pt. iv. 
1874, p. 74; Blanford, East. Persia, ii. (Zool.) 1876, p. 434; Lessona, Atti Ac. Linc. Mem. 
Cl. Se. Fis. i. 1877, p. 1085, pl. 4; Blanf. Second Yarkand Miss., Rept. & Batr. 1878, p. 26; 
Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880, p. 553, pl. u.; Blgr. Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M.1882, p. 297; Miiller, 
Verh. naturf. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, p. 187 ; Camerano, Mem. Ac. Torino, (2) xxxv. 1884, p. 229; 
Compt. Rend. Assoc. Fr. x. 1882, p. 690; Boettger, Abhand. Senck. Ges. xiii. 1884, p. 138 , 


BUFO VIRIDIS. 351 


Camerano, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1884, p. 424; Héron-Royer, Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr. ix. 1884, p. 29; 
Miller, Verh. naturf. Ges. Basel, vii. 1884, p. 122 et p. 278; Murray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (5) 
xiv. 1884, p. 105; Tristram, West. Palestine, Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 159; Miiller, Verh. 
naturf. Ges. Basel, viii. 1887, p. 258; Boettger, Radde’s Fauna u. Flora des siidwestl. Casp. 
1886, p. 79; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr. xiii. 1888, p. 220; Blanchard, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 
xill. 1888, p. 67; Boettger, Sitzb. Ak. Wissensch. Berl. 1888, p. 148; Ber. Senck. Ges. 
1888-89, pp. 268, 274; Blgr. Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) ii. 1888, p. 506; Héron-Royer, Bull. Soc. 
Zool. Fr. xii. 1888, p. 27, figs., & p. 84; Walter, Zool. Jahrb. iii. 1888, p. 983; Blgr. Trans. 
Linn. Soe. (Zool.) v. 1889, p. 105 ; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1889, p. 387 ; Héron-Royer 
& Van Bambeke, Arch. Biol. 1889, p. 293, pl. xiii. figs. 5-8 ; Boettger, Cat. Batr. Mus. 
Senck. 1890, p. 34; Mariacha, Riv. Ital. Sci. Nat. ix. 1889, p. 29; Blgr. Fauna Brit. Ind., 
Rept. & Batr. 1890, p. 504; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 158; Proc. Zool. Soe. 1891, 
p. 612, pl. xlvi. fig. 5; Hart, Fauna & Flora Sinai, 1891, p. 210; Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1892, p. 23; Kom, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. Bonn, 1892, p. 25; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. 
Wien, xhi. 1892, p. 355; Camerano, Boll. Mus. Torino, viii. 1893, no. 162, p. 3; Pfeffer, 
Jahrb. Hamb. Anst. x. 1893, p. 35; Olivier, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 128; 
Peracca, Boll. Mus. Zool. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 17; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. 
Wien, xliv. 1894, p. 87; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, pp. 83, 87, & 111; 
Boettger, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlvi. 1896, p. 279; Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 548 ; 
Escherich, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlvi. 1896, p. 277. 

Bufo schreberianus, Laur. Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 27. 

Rana variabilis, Pallas, Spicil. Zool. fase. vii. 1769, p. 1, pl. vi. figs. 3-4; Hermann, Affin. An. 
17838, p. 808; Sturm, Deutschl. Fauna, Abtheil. iii. (1798-1828) Heft 2. 

Rana sitibunda, Pallas, Reise, 1.1771, p. 458 ; Donndorff, Zool. Beytr. iii. 1798, p. 48. 

Rana bufina, Miller, Zool. Danica, Prod. 1776, p. 35, no. 293; Retzius, Fauna Suecica, 1800, 

-p. 283. 

Rana (Bufo) viridis, Donndorff, Zool. Beytr. iii. 1798, p. 41. 

Bufo sitibunda, Schn. Hist. Amph. 1. 1799, p. 225. 

Bufo variabilis, Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 180; Risso, Hist. Nat. Europ. mérid. iii. 1826, p. 93; 
Brandt & Ratzeburg, Med. Zool. i. 1829, p. 197, pl. 23. figs. 2 & 11; Gravenh. Delic. Mus. 
Zool. Vratislav. 1829, p. 63 ; Eichwald, Zool. Spec. Ross. et Polon. iii. 1831, p. 167; Tschudi, 
Mém. Soc. Se. Nat. de Neuchatel, 11. 1835, p. 88; Schinz, Nouv. Mém. Soc. Sc. Helv. i. 
no. 3, 1837, p. 145; Krynicki, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1837, no. 3, p. 67; Gervais, Ann. Sc. 
Nat. (8) x. 1848, p. 205; Jan, Filippi, Viagg. in Persia, 1865, p. 357; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Imp. 
Mose. 1879, no. 3, p. 24; Schreiber, Herp. Europa, 1875, p. 138; Boettger, Ber. Senck. Ges. 
1880, p. 211; Reichenow, Sitzb. Ges. naturf. Fr. Berl. 1888, p. 150; Del Prato, Atti Soc. 
Ital. Sc. Nat. xxxv. 1895, p. 205. 

Bufo arabicus, Heyden, Riipp. Reise nordl. Afr. 1827, p. 20, pl. v. fig. 2. 

Bufo variabilis, var. crucigera, Kichw. Zool. Spec. Ross. et Polon. iii. 1831, p. 167. 

Bufo calamia, Gthr. (non Laur.), Gthr. Rept. Brit. Ind. 1864, p. 420. 

Bufo pantherinus, Riippell, part., Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 315; Dum. & Bibr. part., viii. 1841, 
p. 687. 

Bufo vulgaris, part., Gthr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 977. 

Bufo boulengeri, Lataste, Rev. Int. Sc. 1879, p. 438. 


302 THE BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 


Bufo mauritanicus, part., Boettger, Kobelt’s Reis. Alger. u. Tunis, 1885, p. 474. 
Bufo viridis, var. balearica, Boettger, Zool. Anz. 1880, p. 642; Cat. Batr. Mus. Senck. 1890, 
p- 35. 


1 9. Under a small bridge over a water-conduit, Ramleh, Alexandria. 


Snout short and moderately broad; nostrils close to the extremity of the snout, 
distant from it about one-third of the interval between it and the eye. Interorbital 
space flat, not so broad as an upper eyelid. Eye twice, or more than twice, the diameter 
of the tympanum ; the latter more or less vertically oval, distinct. Parotoids variable, 
in some very large, more or less elongate, bean-shaped, generally passing backwards 
on a line with the vertical of the axilla. Male with a subgular vocal sac. First 
finger somewhat longer than the second, or the two nearly of equal length; toes about 
one-half or two-thirds webbed, with small, simple, subarticular tubercles, and two 
moderately large metatarsal tubercles and a tarsal fold; tarso-metatarsal joint, when 
the limb is laid forwards, generally reaches the front of the eye; obscure, porous, 
rounded eminences or warts scattered over the skin. General colour greyish olive, with 
rather brilliant green spots, and the warts finely punctulated with bright pink (¢ ), 
or the upper surface nearly uniform greyish; under surface white, or more or less 
dusky spotted. 

This species, as far as my observations go, does not appear to be common in Lower 
Egypt, for, although I was very often on the lookout for it, I succeeded in finding only 
a single specimen. 

It is distributed over Northern Africa, from Egypt to Morocco, penetrating the Nile 
valley to Luxor, and extending as far south as the island of Dahalak in the Red Sea. 
Its western range in Kurope extends to the Rhine and to the Alps up to 6500 feet. It 
is spread over the rest of Southern Europe, and occurs in the Balearic Islands. In 
Asia it is present in North-west Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, Baluchistan, 
northwards through Afghanistan to Eastern Turkestan, Central Asia, and to the 
Himalayas, where it has been found at an elevation of 15,000 feet. 

In Europe the breeding-season of this toad begins in the first part of April and 
lasts to the middle of June, and those sexually active remain a long time in the 
water. 

Dr. Innes, to whom I am indebted for the native name, says this toad and 
B. reqularis are known as ise pods, dofdah tini=land-frog. 


BUFO REGULARIS. 353 


Buro REGULARIS, Reuss. (Plate L. fig. 3.) 


Bufo cinereus (non Schn.), Licht. Doubl. Berl. Mus. 1823, p. 106, no. 114. 
Grenouille ponctuée, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Descr. de ’Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 160, footnote, 


pl. iv. figs. 1 & 2. 


Bufo regularis, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 60; Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880, p. 560, pl. hii. 


var. B, 9 ; Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1882, p. 298; Peters, Reise n. Mossamb. iii. Amph. 1882, 
p- 178; Vaillant, Révoil, Faune et Flore Pays-Comalis, 1882, p. 25; Fischer, Jahrb. Hamb. 
Wissenschaft. Anst. i. 1884, p. 26; Tristram, West. Palest., Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 160; 
Vaillant, Bull. Soc. Philom. (7) viii. 1884, p. 171; Miiller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 
1885, p. 671; Parenti e Picaglia, Rett. ed Anfib. Mar Rosso, 1886, p. 71; Bocage, Jorn. 
Se, Lisb. xi. 1887, p. 192 et p. 208; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1888, p. 51; Héron-Royer & 
Van Bambeke, Arch. Biol. 1889, p. 297, pl. xxiv. figs. 7-9; Miller, Verh. nat. Ges. Basel, viii. 
1887, p. 258, et 1889, p. 689; Boettger, Cat. Batr. Mus. Senck. 1890, p. 35; Giinther, 
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 555; Pfeffer, Jahrb. Hamb. Wissen. Anst. x. 1893, p. 35; 
Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xvi. 1893, p. 737; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 88; 
Bocage, Herpét. d’Angola et du Congo, 1895, p. 185; Blgr. Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) xv. 1895, 
p. 526; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 540; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 110; 
Bocage, Jorn. Sc. Lisboa, (2) iv. no. 14, 1896, pp. 81, 96, & 114; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. 
Genova, (2) xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 554; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 217; Mocquard, C. R. Soc. 
Philom. no. 19, 1896, p. 45; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xvii. (xxxvii.) 1896, p. 14, 
p. 22, et p. 280; Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) xix. 1897, p. 281; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 801 ; 
Tornier, Kriechth. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. 1897, p. 160. 


Bufo pantherinus, Dum. & Bibr., part., viii. 1841, p. 687; Riippell, part., Senck. i. 1845, p. 315 ; 


Guichenot, Lefébvre, Voy. Abyss. vi. Zool. 1845-50, pl. iv. fig. 2; Giinther, part., Cat. Batr. 
Sal. B. M. 1858, p. 59; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 279; Blanf. Geol. & Zool. Abyss. 
1870, p. 459; Giinther, Burton’s Gold Mines of Midian, 1878, p. 398; Bedr. Bull. Soc. Nat. 
Mose. 1879, no. 3, p. 25; part., Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1880, p. 211; Lortet, Arch. 
Mus. Hist. Nat. Lyon, iii. 1883, p. 189. 


Bufo cinereus, Hallowell, Proc. Ac, Philad. 11. (1844-45) 1846, p. 169. 

Rana mosaica, Seetzen, Reise Syrien, Palast., Aegypt. &c. 1855, i. p. 492. 

Bufo maculatus, Hallow. Proc. Ac. Philad. vii. (1854-55) 1856, p. 101. 

Bufo guineensis (non Schlegel), part., Giinth. Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1858, p. 59. 

Bufo spinosus, Bocage, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 845. 

Bufo vulgaris, part., Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 977. 

Bufo regularis, var. spinosa, Boettger, Ber. Senck. Ges. 1887-88, p. 100; Kat. Batr. Mus. Senck. 


1890, p. 35. 


2. Ramleh. 


Mo 


Beltim. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Sir J. G. Rogers, D.S.0., K.C.M.G. 


3. Mahallet el Kebir. George Kent, Esq. 


554 THE BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 


12. Freshwater Canal, Suez. 

4. Backwaters of the Nile below Mena. 

8. The Fayum. Major R. H. Brown, R.E., C.M.G. 

7. Telel Amarna. Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 
8. Assuan. 

2. Wadi Halfa. 

1. Wadi Halfa. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 


Snout short and broad ; nostrils halfway between the eye and the extremity of the 
snout; interorbital space flat or slightly concave from side to side, equalling the breadth 
of the upper eyelid; tympanum about the size of the eye or somewhat smaller, 
vertically oval, very prominent. Parotoid large, elongate, extending backwards to the 
vertical of the shoulder or even to that of the axilla. Males with a subgular vocal sac. 
First finger generally decidedly longer than the second; toes one-third webbed, with 
small, simple, subarticular tubercles ; two well-developed metatarsal tubercles and a 
tarsal fold; under surface of the toes and metatarsus with small horny capped tubercles. 
Tarso-metatarsal joint, when the limb is laid forwards, reaches the anterior border of 
the tympanum or to the eye. Skin covered with large and small warts capped with 
horny points. 

General colour olive-brown or olive-grey, with numerous more or less regular or 
irregular brown markings, and occasionally whitish spots; upper lip usually barred 
with brown; a brown bar below each nostril and generally three behind it; a white 
vertebral line sometimes present ; underparts white, as a rule immaculate, occasiunally 
with large dusky spots. 

g. Snout to vent 91 millim.; hind limb 106; long axis of eye 8; vertical diameter 
of tympanum 7°9. 

This species is very plentifully distributed over the valley of the Nile from the sea 
southwards. It is common at Suez in the Freshwater Canal and extends into 
North-western Arabia, and has been found by the late Sir Richard Burton in Midian. 
It is also spread over the greater part of the continent south of the Sahara, as it 
ranges from Somaliland and Abyssinia to Senegambia, and occurs at the Cape of 
Good Hope. 

The shape of the head varies considerably and also the breadth of the snout. 
The coloration is sometimes very pale, depending seemingly on the nature of the 
surroundings of the toad; e. g., a breeding male from the sandy region of Ramleh was 
entirely pale greyish olive. 

It is closely allied to the Algerian toad, B. mauritanicus, but differs from it in 
having a larger tympanum, and by its toes being somewhat more webbed, with simple 
instead of double subarticular tubercles. 

At Kahiin, where the remains of a whole provincial town of the 12th Dynasty have 


BUFO PENTONI. 35¢ 


been laid bare, Prof. Flinders Petrie, amongst a multiplicity of objects, found an 
earthenware figure in blue glaze, evidently intended to represent this toad, and I am 
indebted to him for permission to figure it (fig. 13, p. 356). 


Buro penton, Anderson. (Plate L. fig. 4.) 


Bufo pentoni, Anderson, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) xii. 1893, p. 440; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 662 ; 
Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 111. 


2g and 19. Shaata Gardens, Suakin. Surgeon-Captain R. H. Penton, D.S.O. 
172,14, and 1juv. Shaata Gardens, Suakin. 


Snout very short and broad; nostrils close to the end of the snout; interorbital space 
flat or slightly concave from side to side, equalling the breadth of the upper eyelid ; 
tympanum about half the size of the eye, more or less vertically oval, well defined ; 
parotoid large, oval, extending to or behind the vertical of the axilla, Males with a 
subgular vocal sac. First finger generally decidedly longer than the second ; toes two- 
thirds webbed, with small, simple, subtubercular tubercles ; two large, prominent, horny 
metatarsal tubercles and a conical well-developed tubercle close to the tarso-metatarsal 
joint ; a feeble tarsal fold; under surface of toes and metatarsus nearly devoid of 
tubercles ; tarso-metatarsal joint when the limb is laid forwards reaches the tympanum. 
Skin covered with moderately-sized, somewhat flattened warts, each capped with a 
horny point varying greatly in its development and not unfrequently absent. 

General colour olive, tinged with yellowish, with obscure dark markings on the back 
and one across the upper eyelids; the warty eminences behind the ear and on the 
sides of body bright yellow or reddish, the chin and lower lip rather bright yellow 
with an orange tinge. Under surface and the inner halves of the upper surfaces of 
the hands and feet milky white, the sternal region tinged with orange. 


¢.- Snout to vent 70 mm., hind limb 75 mm. 
9 0 oP) 75 22 +) 82 » 


This species occurs abundantly around Suakin, especially in the Shaata Gardens, 
about one mile outside the town. In these gardens there are numerous, wide, deep 
wells lined with brickwork, and in them this toad is generally to be found. As they 
have to support themselves above water by clinging on to the brickwork their digits 
become ulcerated and the sores are attacked by some organism, the presence of which 
in some cases produces complete destruction of the digits. The toads fall into these 
wells, and in the majority of cases are unable to escape. In the open country diseased 
digits are not met with. 


It is a burrowing species, and in adults the skin on the front of the snout is more or 
222 


356 THE BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 


less indurated and horny in appearance; but it also takes advantage of the holes made 


by mammals and reptiles. 
As yet it has not been recorded from any other district on the western side of the 


Red Sea, besides Suakin, but it is present on the opposite coast, in the neighbourhood 


of Aden. 


A toad in blue glazed earthenware. (? Bufo regularis.) 
Ruins of Kahin, a 12th Dynasty provincial town (Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie). 


HYLA ARBOREA, 357 


HYLID. 


HYLA. 


Hyla, Laurenti, Syn. Rept. 1768, p. 32, part. ; Blgr. Cat, Batr. Sal. B. M. 1882, p. 337; Fauna 
of Brit. Ind., Rept. & Batr. 1890, p. 509. 


“Pupil horizontal. Tongue entire or slightly nicked, adherent or more or less free 
behind. Vomerine teeth. Tympanum distinct or hidden. Fingers free or more or less 
webbed ; toes webbed, the tips dilated into smaller or larger disks. Outer metatarsals 
united or slightly separated. Omosternum cartilaginous; sternum a cartilaginous 
plate. Diapophyses of sacral vertebra more or less dilated.”—Bigr. 


Hy.a arporga, Linn. 
Rana arborea, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 357. 


Var. SAVIGNYI, Bler. 


Hyla savignyi, Aud. Descr. de Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1829, p. 183, Suppl. Rept. pl. ii. (1812) 
figs. 181 & 132. 

Rana arborea, Seetzen, Reise Syrien, Palist., Aegypt. &c. ii. 1855, p. 486. 

Hyla arborea, Anderson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 403; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 114. 

Hyla arborea, var. meridionalis, part., Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, p. 212. 

Hyla arborea, var. savignyi, Blgr. Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1882, p. 8380; Camerano, Boll. Mus. 
Torino, vii. 1893, no. 162, p. 4. 


This variety of the common tree-frog of Europe, described by Audouin, is characterized 
by him as follows :—This species much resembles in its general form, in the apple- 
green colour of the whole of the upper surface of the body, and in the granular 
structure of the integument of the abdomen and under surface of the limbs, the 
common tree-frog, but differs from it in the disposition of the yellowish bands that 
one observes on its sides. As in the green tree-frog, a black line extends from the 
nostril to the eye, passes over the tympanum, and is prolonged more or less on to the 
flanks ; two other yellowish lines start, likewise, from the posterior angle of the eye ; 
the lower of the two, instead of running along the inferior border of the black line of 
the flanks, passes a little downwards and borders the posterior aspect of the anterior 
limb to its extremity; the upper of the two yellow bands runs along the upper surface 
of the black line, but forms no sinuous angle upon the loins, but extends along the 
whole length of the external border of the hind limb. The under surface of the body 
is yellowish white. 

Mr. Boulenger gives the following as the distinctive characters of this variety :— 


358 THE BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 


“Similar to the typical form, but the marking on the loin is absent; the lateral streak 
frequently broken up into spots from the middle of the side.” This description is 
based on individuals from the island of Elba, from the region to the east of the Levant 
as far as Resht in Northern Persia, and from the island of Hainan in the Chinese Sea. 
The description given by Audouin of Hyla savignyi differs but little from the characters 
usually found in the typical form, with the single exception that the marking on the 
loins is absent. No Egyptian example of this frog exists in any museum, so far as I 
am aware; and as Audouin’s description is the only one extant, the figure on which 
his account was based is here reproduced (fig. 14), as there is no evidence that he 
had a specimen before him when he wrote it. 


Fig. 14. 


Reproduction of figure of Hyla savigny:, Aud. 
(Deser. de Egypte, Hist. Nat. Suppl., Reptiles, pl. ii. (1812) figs. 131 & 132.) 


I took a great deal of trouble, while in Lower Egypt, to try and discover this frog, 
but without success. I had a coloured drawing of it prepared and had it showed 
to many native gardeners in and around Alexandria, but not one of them 
recognized it. 

This variety is common in Palestine and Syria, and also to the west of Egypt, along 
the coast-line of the Mediterranean. It has also an extensive distribution over Asia, 
and occurs as far east as Japan. 


SALAMANDRID2. 359 


BA WIR /A G lal (iN UID YAW Ac 


SALAMANDRIDZ. 


Gervais! has recorded that A. Lefévre or Lefébyre, who is not to be confounded 
with Théophile Lefebvre of Abyssinian fame, obtained a species of triton in the oasis 
of “ Barieh,” or more correctly Baharieh. 

Mr. Boulenger, writing in 1882, mentioned that M. F. Lataste had received several 
larvee of a Salamandroid collected near Alexandria by M. Letourneux. 

These are the only two references in zoological literature that mention the presence 
in Egypt of this group of Batrachians. 

I made a most careful search during two successive years for Salamandroids in the 
neighbourhood of Ramleh, and on two or three occasions I employed an intelligent 
Syrian, who used to collect for M. Letourneux, to do the same, but neither I nor he 
ever succeeded in finding any. I went provided with some British newts in alcohol to 
show to the natives, in order to give them some idea of the kind of animal of which I 
was in quest; but all the agricultural labourers, in the localities I had selected as 
appearing to me to be the most likely spots in which to find Salamandroids, declared 
that they had never seen such animals. This experience, however, should not 
deter others from continuing the search, in view of what has been put on record by 
the foregoing authorities. 


* Ann. Sc. Nat. (sér. 2) vi. 1836, p. 312. 
* Cat. Batr. Grad. 1882, p. 106. 


Explanation of the letters of the alphabet heading the columns :—A. Littoral at Marsa Matru; B. Littoral 
of Delta; C. Delta south to Beni Suef; D. Beni Suef to Assuan; E. Assuan to Wadi Halfa ; 
F. Wadi Halfa to Khartum; G.,Sennaar; H. Kordofan; I. Valley of White Nile; J. Nubia 
and Sudan, when no more detailed information has been available; K. Arabian desert, Ismailia 
and Suez to Kosseir; L. Durrur to Akik; M. Oasis of Siwah; N. Oasis of Dakhel; O. Oases 


TABLE ILLUSTRATING 


DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES 


OVER THE AREAS DEALT WITH IN THIS WORK. 


of Khargeh and Berys. 


Species in italics have not yet been recorded from the Nile Valley to the north of Wadi Halfa. 


REPTILIA. 


Crocodilus niloticus, Laur. 
Testudo' calearata, Schn. ...........- 


oy Metin, GUAR oo oo cca dodcena00 ae 
Sternotherus adansonit (Schweigg.) ....) .- 
Pelomedusa galeata (Schoepff)*........ ae 


Trionyx triunguis (orské/) * 


Cyclanorbis senegalensis (D. & B.) ....| a 
Stenodactylus elegans (Mitz.). ....--.-| 2h 


a petrii, Anders. 


Tropiocolotes tripolitanus, Peters ...... oe 


ra steudneri (Peters) 


Bunopus blanfordii, Strauch.......-..|. | 
Gymnodactylus seaber (Heyden) ...... a 


Pristurus flavipunctatus, ippell 


Ptyodactylus hasselquistii (Donndorff ) il 


Hemidactylus flaviviridis, Riippell 
turcicus (Linn.)* 


si turcicus, var. sinaita, Bler.| .. 


Tarentola mauritanica (Linn.) ........ 
an ephippiata, O'Shaughn. 


i annularis (Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil.). ; 


Agana mutabilis, Merr. 
»,  Ppallida, Reuss 


S 


M. 


E 


* 


: * * & * 


Tvstudo ibera, Pallas, has been stated on native report to be present in the Sudan, but this is doubtful. - 


* Present in Sinaitic Peninsula. 


w 


Present in Natron Lakes. 


* Present in the island of Shadwan. 


DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES. 


A.| B.| C.| D.| B.| F.| G.|H.| I. | J.) K.} L.) M.) N 
REPTILIA (cont?). 
Agama sinaita, Heyden® ............|.. .. | x * % 
»  flavimaculata, Riippell ........ x | x ae | * 
SOWING, CR) oo ccac0dn0nDKGl| oo elles RS x | x 
5 e@lonrnrn, nth  sacaeanccs so lLe3 
3»  hartmanni, Peters .......... ee K | 
m ral WAR) covecooosoanad * 
Uromastix ocellatus, Licht. .......... we * * * 
? 5 ornatus, Heyden ........ oh Peralleeteal| arathhaee 
0 eeyptius (Hasselg. § Linn.) .|..| x | x | x | «| x + | ok 
60 acanthinurus, Bell ........ da|c6 || oo || ool es 
Varanus griseus (Daud.) ............ x |e | x | xe |e | & |e * | * 
»  ocellatus, Heyden .......... Pcie fecreal esecsel aces ll steae ees Fa 
» niloticus (Hasselq. § Linn.) ..|.. x || x |e |e. | xe 
Latastia longicaudata (Reuss) ........ Bec | reall ea eed hee & po |e 
Acanthodactylus boskianus (Daud.) % | x | & | x x |x |x |e: | 
45 pardalis (Licht.) ....|..| % | %]-- ais * * 
scutellatus (Aud.).... x | «| | x * * 
Eremias mucronata (Blan) eee Baile oull's0 a6 06 || e 
oy) guttulatay(Zecht.)) 2... x |x | * x | * | x 
3 rubropunctata (Cichit5) eee x | & | aun * | * | * 
Gerrhosaurus flavigularis, Wiegm. Fayl| oll Ge * 
Mabuia quinqueteeniata (Licht.) ...... x |x | | xe | xe | a * * 
op whi (OWED) dd0o0-000008 -- |e | «| * 
Eumeces schneideri (Daud.).......... x | ox 
Scincopus fusciatus, Peters .......... sist lerarll| peel ata * x0 * 
Scincus officinalis, Lawr? ............ So || 3 || €3 * 20 * 
Chalcides ocellatus (Forskél) ........ x | * | ¥ | * x la |e | 3 
= sepoides (Aud.) ............ -» |e | & | * ++ | ok 
»,  Gelislii (Zataste)............ nn oo || oo loc olla || & 
Chameeleon vulgaris (Zinn.)* ........ x |x | * ys * | % 
5 calyptratus, A. Dum....... oo |ool} oo Pie 
basiliscus, Cope*.........- * s+ | x * 
Glauconia cairi (D. @ EBB) eareteuetenentteWalevene * 31 \Vfoue a * 
o macrorhynchus (Peters) on . % 
Python sebe (Gmelin) ............-- a me Ea 
Eryx thebaicus, Reuss .............. ce fee | xe | xe | xe | x ai *% 
s, Jaculus (Hasselg. § Linn.) ......].. * | ¥ 
» Medley IB oocoeccs000006c6|| 00 36 || 0.0 Ba 
Tropidonotus tessellatus (Laur.) ...... |x 
Zamenis gemonensis (Zaur.), var. asiana.| .. | ? 
os @eslnt (UF) co ca0ea0ccc0K0 B 
a rhodorhachis, Jan ..........)|.. Be leans 
3 MOPETSIs PANES eM elalelhelele leer: x | x% | *& | x % 
»  florulentus (Is. Geoffr. St.-Hil.).| ..| x | x | * | x * | * 
»  Tavergieri (Ménétr.), var. num- 
mnmntere, INAS9 oo0000000000l| v0 Pane ee *% 
diadema (Schl.) .......... i.[.. | | «| & | x 50 * | & | 
Lytorhynchus diadema (D. & B.)...... 56 I'l) 2 So on * | 
Coluber situla, Zinn. ........ ...-+.. o || B 
Oligodon melanocephalus (Miiller) ....) .. es 
Dasypeltis scabra (Linn.) ............).. a9 || ow || & * 
Tarbophis savignyi, Blgr............. gv 


* The presence of this species in the oases of Khargeh and Berys seems doubtful. 


? Present in oasis of Baharieh. 


° Said to be present in W. Natrun. 


* Probably introduced into the Delta by human agency. 


9 


vA 


DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES. 
: | 
A.| B.| C.|D.| B.| F.|G.|H.| 1.| J. | K.)L. | M.)N.) 0. 
Reprrnr1a (cont?). 
Tarbophis obtusus (/tewss) ......++.. ert 90 lesen ase * | 
Leptodira hotamboeia (Laur.) .......+4+ aall| die |) G0] 0.0 * 
Ccelopeltis moilensis (Heuss).......... 6a |loo | ea | os Ba ao | 
y monspessulana (Hermann)? .|..| % |...) .- ae x 
' Psammophis schokari (Morskal) ...... oe | ok | ae sk x | ok Py 
o sibilans (Zimn.).........- Bo es les er 
Macroprotodon cucullatus (1s. Geoff. 
Sie Weecace pa omoboraanonodao:6 x 
Naja haje (Hasselq. §: Linn.) ......-- x |e | «|e | xe | ok 
oo WNAMCOIR, JGHls ooccceco00000¢ Boal esoslieo {kes 
| Walterinnesia egyptia, Lat........... soll 2 | @ Be 
Causus vesimus (Peters)..........++++ 00 |} 
IBRES CHPUATEOS (MIESTR)) Gooocacoocccc6 ap os lou loo ll ool] <2 |] oo] eal] 6 
Cerastes cornutus (Hasselg. § Linn.) .. * |x| el x | xe | x 50 x | % 
»  vipera (Hasselq. § Linn.) .... ell em Iles loa || oo x |e. | oR 
Echis carinatus (Schn.) .........2.55- x | & | x * oll 2 || 
BaTRACHIA, 
Rana cordofana, Steindach. .......... a * 
5 CHOU, JARs boooguedcce0ds * 
5, mascareniensis, D. fd B......... xl xl xl «| x |x * 
Cassina senegalensis (D. & B.) ......-. collec col} ooll ool} & 
Hemisus sudanense (Steindach.) ...... o6 Siloo ||) x 
Tonio) Wwrle, LEC soooccco00t00000 * 20 00 K 
7 esatkontl, AMIS, 05000000000000 Bot |cota feocat [hore oo || 6 
op RESUS, INGISS Goo0cccop0c0an -- |e | xe | xe | x * 
Hyla arborea (Linn.), var. savignyi, Blgr.| ..| ? 
Salamandra, sp. ignote#? ............ @ 


1 This species has been recorded by Rohlfs from the Regenfeld, in the west of the Libyan desert. 
2 The larva of a species has been obtained in the oasis of Baharieh. 


INDEX. 


abyssinica (Rana), 347. 

acanthinurus (Uromastix), 131, 361. 
Acanthodactylus, 147. 

adansonii (Sternothzrus), Intro. lv, 360. 
egypt et officinarum (Vipera), 327. 
egyptia (Lacerta), 129. 

egyptia (Vipera), 327. 

egyptia (Walterinnesia), 324. 
egyptiaca (Dipsas) (Telescopus), 283. 
egyptiaca (Eremioplanis), 95. 
egyptiaca (Tarentola), 89. 

eqyptiaca (Vipera), 327. 

egyptiaca (Vipera) (Echidna), 327. 


egyptiaca, var. See austriaca (Coronella), 276 fu. 


egyptiacus (Ascalabotes), 89. 
egyptiacus (Cerastes), 330. 
egyptiacus (Coluber), 327. 
egyptiacus (Dipsas), 283. 
egyptiacus (Gecko), 89. 
egyptiacus (Gymnopus), 32.: 
egyptiacus (Platydactylus), 89. 
egyptiacus (Trionya), 32. 
egyptius (Trapelus), 94, 100. 
zgyptius (Uromastix), 129, 361. 
esculapir (Coluber), 288. 
africana (Fordia), 32. 

africana (Serpens), 302. 
africanus (Chameleo), 225, 230. 
Agama, 92. 

Agamide, 92. 

agilis (Agama), 95, 110. 
Aglypha, 245. 

albigularis (Varanus), 138. 
aldrovandii (Plestiodon), 196. 


algira (Tropidosaura), 147 fn. 

algirus (Psammodromus), 147 fn. 
ammodytes (Vipera), 326 fn. 

anchieta (Rana), 347. 

annularis (Gecko), 89. 

annularis (Tarentola), 89, 360. 
annulifera, var. See haje (Naja), 313. 
antiquorum (Stellio), 122. 

arabicus (Bufo), 351. 

arborea (Hyla), var. meridionalis, 357. 
arborea (Hyla), var. savignyi, 357, 362. 
Arcifera, 350. 

arenaceus (Varanus), 134. 

arenaria (Agama), 106. 

arenarius (Psammosaurus), 134. 
arenarius (Tupinambis), 134. 

arenarius (Varanus), 134. 

arenarius (Varanus) (Psammosaurus), 184. 
arenicola (Echis), 336. 

arenicola (Toaicoa), 337. 

arletans (Bitis), 326 fn., 362. 
ascalabotes (Gekko), 62. 

asiana, var. See gemonensis (Zamenis), 248. 
aspera (Agama), 95. 

aspera (Lacerta), 148. 

aspilus (Aspidonectes), 32. 

aterrima (Atractaspis), 326 fn. 
Atractaspis, 326 fn. 

atricauda (Echidna), 327, 330. 

aurata (Mabouia), 196. 

auratus (Chameleon), 226. 

auratus (Plestiodon), 196. 

auritus (Coluber), 302. 

austriaca (Coronella), var. egyptiaca, 276 fn. 


3B 


364 


330. 


avicenne (Vipera), 327, 
avizenne (Vipera), 327. 
balearica, var. See viridis (Bufo), 352. 
balfourt (EZremias) (Mesalina), 175. 
harroist (Ptyodactylus), 65. 

basiliseus (Chameeleon), 230, 232, 361. 
Batrachia Caudata, 359. 

Batrachia Ecaudata, 345. 

bedriagai (Acanthodactylus), 151. 
bengaliensis (Hemidactylus), 77. 

bibronti (Rana), 347. 

binotatus (Euprepes), 187. 

bischoffsheimi (Ptyodactylus), 65. 

Bitis, 326 fn., 362. 

bizonatus (Scytale), 336. 

blanfordii (Bunopus), 50, 360. 

Boide, 236. 

boschianus (Acanthodactylus), 148. 
boskiana (Lacerta), 148. 

boskiana (Lacerta) (Acanthodactylus), 148. 
boskianus (Acanthodactylus), 148, 361. 
boulengeri (Bufo), 351. 

brandtii (Cyclodus), 201. 

brandtir (Otolepis), 200. 

brennert (Bremias), 169. 

brevis (Coronella), 308. 

brevis (Coronella) (Macroprotodon), 308. 
bufina (Rana), 351. 

Bufo, 350. 

Bufonide, 350. 

Bunopus, 50. 


cahirinus (Coluber), 256. 
cairi (Glauconia), 233, 361. 
cuiri (Stenostoma), 233. 
calamita (Bufo), 351. 
calcarata (Testudo), 31, 360. 
calyptratus (Chameleon), 228, 232, 361. 
campanulata (Testudo), 28. 
candidissimus (Coluber), 312. 
candidus (Cerastes), 312. 
capensis (Lacerta), 140. 
capensis (Polydedalus), 141. 
capensis (Varanus), 141, 
capistrata (Mabuya), 220. 
capistratus (Sphenops), 220. 


INDEX. 


carinata (Echis), 336. 

carinata (Echis), var. frenata, 337. 
carinata (Pseudoboa), 336. 
carinata (Vipera), 337. 

carinata ( Vipera) (Lehis), 336. 
carinatus (Chameleon), 225. 
carinatus (Hchis), 336, 362. 
caspius (Psammosaurus), 134. 
Cassina, 348 fn., 362. 
caudelineatus (Zamenis), 260, 261. 
caudolineatus (Periops), 260. 
Causus, 326 fn., 362. 

cepedir (Scincus), 196. 

Cerastes, 326. 

cerastes (Anguis), 240. 

cerastes (Coluber), 330. 

cerastes (Hrya), 240. 

cerastes (Vipera), 327, 330. 
cerastes (Vipera) (Cerastes), 330. 
cerastes (Vipera) (Echidna), 330. 
Chaleides, 208. 

chalcides (Seps), 223. 
Chameleon, 225. 

chameleon (Lacerta), 225, 
Chameeleontidie, 225. 

Chameleo, sp., 226. 

Chelonia, 28. 

cinereus (Bufo), 353. 

cinereus (Chameleo), 225. 
cleopatra (Aspis), 327. 

cleopatra (Vipera) (Cerastes), 327. 
coctet (Hemidactylus), 77. 
cocteaut (Hoplopodion), 77. 
Ccelopeltis, 288. 

colonorum (Agama), 114. 
colonorum (Agama), 117, 361. 
Coluber, 274. 

Colubridze, 245. 

colubrina (Tortria), 236, 241. 
Colubrine, 245, 

colubrinus (Anguis), 236. 
colubrinus (Erya), 230. 
cordofana (Rana), 348 fn. 
cordofanus (Py«icephalus), 348 {n., 362. 
cordylea (Agama), 122. 
cordylina (Stellio), 122. 

cornuta (Beschasch Datan), 330. 


cornuta ( Vipera), 330. 

cornutus (Cerastes), 330, 362. 

cornutus (Coluber), 330. 

Crocodilide, 1. 

Crocodilus, 1. 

crucigera, var. See variabilis (Bufo), 351. 
cruentatus (Coluber), 274. 

cucullata (Coronella), 308. 

cucullatus (Coluber), 308. 

cucullatus (Lycognathus), 308. 

cucullatus (Macroprotodon), 308, 362. 
cucullatus (Psammophylax), 308. 
cucullatus (Psammophylax), var. textilis, 308. 
curonica (Aigialites), 21, 22. 
cyanodactylus (Gecus), 80. 

cyanodactylus (Hemidactylus), 81. 
Cyclanorbis, 360. 

cyprinus (Tiliqua), 196. 

cyprius (Scincus), 196. 

cyprius (Stellio), 122. 


dahlit (Tyria), 250. 

dahlii (Zamenis), 250, 270, 361. 
dahlia (Zamenis), 256. 

Dasypeltis, 278. 

de VIslei (Allodactylus), 223. 
delislii (Chaleides), 223, 361. 
delislit (Chalcides) (Sphceenops), 223. 
deserti (Agama), 94, 100. 

deserti (Lacerta), 151. 

deserti (Zootoca), 151, 154, 160. 
dhara (Tarbophis), 283. 

diadema (Heterodon) (Lytorhynchus), 271. 
diadema (Lytorhynchus), 271, 361. 
diadema (Zamenis), 267, 361. 
Dipsadomorphine, 281. 

dispar (Uromastiz), 131. 

distinctus (Bothriophis), 289. 

doriw (Agama), 119. 

doriai (Latastia), 143. 

dumerilii (Lacerta), 161. 

dumerilii (Meroles), 161. 


Kchis, 336. 

echis (Vipera), 337. 
edda (Lacerta), 205. 
Elapine, 312. 


INDEX. 536 


Or 


elegans (Monitor), 141. 

elegans (Stenodactylus), 42, 46, 360. 
elegans (Tupinambis), 140. 
elegans (Varanus), 141. 
Kmydosauria, 1. 

ephippiata (Tarentola), 88, 360. 
Eremias, 169. 

Eryx, 236. 

erya (Tortria), 241. 

esculenta (Rana), 345, 362. 
esculenta (Rana), var., 346. 
Eumeces, 196. 


facetana (Tarentola), 86. 

facetanus (Platydactylus), 86. 

fumiliaris (Eryx), 241. 

fasciata (Dasypeltis), 278. 

fasciatus (Chameleon), 226. 

fasciatus (Scincopus), 201, 361. 

fasciatus (Seincus), 201. 

fasciatus (Seincus) (Scincopus), 201. 

fascicularis (Ascalabotes), 86. 

fascicularis (Gecko), 86. 

fascicularis (Gecko) (Platydactylus), 86. 

fascicularis (Platydactylus), 86. 

fascicularis (Platydactyla) (Tarentola), 86. 

fedtschenkot (Zamenis), 260. 

fedtschenkoi, var. See ravergiert (Zumenis), 
260. 

fellowsiz (Euprepes), 193. 

Firmisternia, 345. 

flavigularis (Gerrhosaurus), 361. 

flavyimaculata (Agama), 110, 125, 361. 

flavimaculata (Agama), 95. 

flavimaculatus (Trapelus), 110. 

flavipunctatus (Gymnodactylus), 56. 

flavipunctatus (Pristurus), 56, 360. 

flavipunctatus (Saurodactylus), 56. 

flaviviridis (Hemidactylus), 77, 360. 

flecuosus (Coluber), 289. 

florulenta (Tylanthera), 256. 

florulentus (Coluber), 256. 

florulentus (Zamenis), 256, 270, 361. 

frenata (Echis), 337. 

frenata, var. See carinata (Echis), 337. 

fuscigula (Rana), var., 347. 

fuscus (Rhabdodon), 289. 


366 


galeata (Pelomedusa), Intro. lv, 360. 
gariba (Coluber), 337. 

gecco (Ptyodactylus), 62. 

gecko (Lacerta), 62. 

gecko (Ptyodactylus), 62, 67, 65. 
gecko (Stellio), 62. 

geckoides (Gymnodactylus), 54. 
Geckonide, 35. 

gemonensis (Natria), 248. 
gemonensis (Zamenis), 248, 270, 361. 
Gerrhosaurus, 360. 

Glauconia, 233. 

Glauconiide, 233. 

glazounowi (Zamenis), 260. 

gracilis (Lortrix), 241. 

greca (Lestudo), 28. 

grammica (Lacerta), 161. 

grammica (Lacerta) (Scapteira), 161. 
granosus (Hemidactylus), 80. 
griseus (Monitor), 134. 

griseus (Psammosaurus), 134. 
griseus (Lupinambis), 134. 

griseus (Varanus), 134, 361. 
guineensis (Bufo), 353. 

gularis (Agama), 93, 95. 

gularis (Euprepis), 187. 

guitata (Eremias), 178. 

guitatus (Coluber), 256. 

guttatus (Ptyodactylus), 65. 

guttatus (Stenodactylus), 42, 45. 


guttatus (Stenodactylus), var. mauritanica, 42. 


guttolineata (Eremias), 183. 
guttulata (Eremias), 174, 186, 361. 
guttulata (Lacerta), 174. 

guttulata (Lacerta) (Hremias), 175. 
guttulata (Mesalina), 175. 
Gymnodactylus, 54, 


haie (Naia), 313. 

haje (Coluber), 312. 

haje (Naja), 312, 362. 

haje (Naja) (Ureus), 318. 

haje (Naja), var. A, 313. 

haje (Naja), var. annulifera, 313. 
haje (Naja), var. viridis, 313. 
haje (Ureus), 312. 

haje (Vipera), 312. 


INDEX. 


haje (Vipera) (Nata), 312, 322. 

hartmanni (Agama), 119, 125, 361. 

hasselquistti (Cerastes), 330. 

hasselquistii (Lacerta), 62, 360. 

hasselquistii (Ptyodactylus), 62, 360. 
hasselquistii (Ptyodactylus), var. oudrii, 68. 
hasselquistii (Ptyodactylus), var. siphonorhina, 67. 
helluo (Anguis), 241. 

Hemidactylus, 77. 

Hemisus, 349 fn., 362. 

hippocrepis (Zamenis), 261. 

hispanicus (Chameleon), 225. 

holleik (Coluber), 327. 

horatta (Boa), 336. 

hotambeeia (Leptodira), 287, 362. 

humilis, var. See ocellatus (Chalcides), 211, 215. 
Hyla, 357. 

Hylide, 357. 


ide (Rana), 347. 

ide, var. See mascareniensis (ltana), 347. 
inequalis (Scapteira), 148. 

inermis (Agama), 94. 

inornata (Scapteira), 161. 

inornatus (Acanthodactylus), 161. 
insignitus (Calopeltis), 289. 

insignitus (Coluber), 289, 292. 

irregularis (Atractaspis), 326 fn. 


jaculus (Anguis), 240. 

jaculus (Eryx), 240, 361. 

jaculus (Eryx), var. miliaris, 241. 
jaculus (Erya), var. sennaariensis, 236. 
jaculus (Eryx), var. surinamensis, 236. 
jaculus (Eryx), var. teherana, 241. 
jomardii (Seineus), 193. 

jugularis (Coluber), 248. 


kirkii (Euprepis), 187. 
kleinmanni (Testudo), 28. 


labiatus (Trionyx), 32. 

lacazit (Ptyodactylus), 65. 
Lacertidse, 143. 

Lacertilia, 35. 

lacertina (Ceelopeltis), 289. 
lacertina (Caelopeltis), var., 292. 


lacertina (Coelopeltis), var. moilensis, 292. 
lacertina (Natria), 288. 

lacertina (Psammophis), 289. 
lucertinus (Malpolon), 288. 

ladaccensis (Zamenis), 252. 

ladaccensis (Zamenis), var. subnigra, 252. 
levigatus (Chamelio), 230. 

levis (Coronella), 308. 

Latastia, 143. 

latastii (Agama), 95. 

latastii (Vipera), 326 ft. 

lebetina (Vipera), 327 fn. 

leithii (Testudo), 28, 360. 

leopardina (Natrix), 274. 

leopardinus (Cullopeltis), 274. 
leopardinus (Coluber), 274. 

Leptodira, 287, 362. 

leucostygma (Agama), 100, 110. 
Kibanoticus (Euprepis) (Euprepis), 193. 
lichtensteinii (Mesalina), 183. 

lineolata (Pseuderemias), 169. 

lobatus (Gecko), 62. 

lobatus (Piyodactylus), 62. 

lobatus (Ptyodactylus), var. oudrit, 68. 
lobatus syriacus (Ptyodactylus), 65. 
longicaudata (Lacerta), 143. 
longicaudata (Lacerta) (Acanthodactylus), 143. 
longicaudata (Latastia), 143, 361. 
loricata (Agama), 100. 

lugubris (Eremias), 169. 

lumsdeni (Stenodactylus), 46. 
Lytorhynchus, 271. 


mabouya (Scincus), 210. 

Mabuia, 187. 

Macroprotodon, 308. 

macrorhynchus (Glauconia), 235, 361. 
maculata (Scapteira), 151. 

maculatus (Bufo), 353. 

maculatus (Coluber), 260. 

maculatus (Gecko), 62. 

maculatus (Hemidactylus), 81. 
marchu (Rana), 347. 

margaritifer (Huprepes), 187. 
margaritifer (Huprepes) (Euprepes), 187. 
marginata (Testudo), 28. 

maroccanus (Macroprotodon), 308. 


INDEX. 367 


martini (Eremias), 175. 

mascareniensis (Rana), 346, 362. 
mauritanica (Gecko), 86. 

mauritanica (Lacerta), 86. 

mauritanica (Tarentola), 86, 360. 
mauritanica, var. See guttatus (Stenodactylus), 42. 
mauritanicus (Ascalabotes), 86. 
mauritanicus (Bufo), 352. 

mauritanicus (Macroprotodon), 308. 
mauritanicus (Platydactylus), 86. 
mauritanicus (Stellio), 86. 

mauritanicus (Stenodactylus), 42. 
melanocephalus (Oligodon), 277, 361. 
meridionalis (Gecko), 80. 

mericdionalis, var. See arborea (Hyla), 357. 
microcephala (Tiliqua), 211. 
microstictus (Varanus), 138. 

miliaris (Anguis), 240. 

miliaris (Eryx), 241. 

miliaris (Tortrix), 241. 

miliaris, var. See jaculus (Eryx), 241. 
moilensis (Ceelopeltis), 292, 362. 
motlensis (Coluber), 292. 

moilensis, var. See lacertina (Ceelopeltis), 292. 
moniliger (Coluber), 302. 

monspeliensis (Coluber), 289. 
monspessulana (Ccelopeltis), 288, 362. 
monspessulana (Coluber), var. neumayeri, 289. 
monspessulanus (Coluber), 288. 
monspessulanus (Coluber) (Natrix), 288. 
montmahout (Ptyodactylus), 65. 

mortoni (Trionyx), 32. 

mosaica (Rana), 353. 

mossambica (Rana), 347. 

mucronata (Boulengeria), 169. 
mucronata (Eremias), 169, 186, 361. 
mucronatus (Acanthodactylus), 169. 
muelleri (Eryx), 239, 361. 

murals (Plutydactylus), 86. 

muricatus (Gecko), 86. 

mutabilis (Agama), 94, 125, 360. 
mutabilis (Agama), 100. 


Naja, 312. 

nebulosa (Scapteira), 183. 

neglectus, caudelineatus (Zamenis), 261. 
neglectus (Periops), 261. 


368 


neglectus (Zamenis) (Periops), 261. 
neumayert (Coluber), 288. 
neumayeri, var. monspessulana (Coluber), 289. 
nigrescens (Rana), 347. 

nigricollis (Naja), 322, 362. 
nigricollis (Naja), var. occidentalis, 322. 
nigrofasciata (Ayama), 100. 
nilotica (Lacerta), 140. 

nilotica (Lana), 347. 

nilotica (Tyrse), 32. 

niloticus (Crocodilus), 10, 360. 
niloticus (Monitor), 141. 

niloticus (Polydedalus), 141. 
niloticus (Scincus), 140. 

niloticus (Trionya), 32. 

niloticus (Lupinambis), 140. 
niloticus (Varanus), 140, 361. 
nivea (Vipera), 312. 

niveus (Coluber), 312. 

numinifer (Coluber), 261. 
nummifer (Coluber) (Periops), 261. 
nummifer (Zamenis), 261. 


nummifer, var. See ravergieri (Zamenis), 261. 


obtusa (Dipsas), 283. 

obtusus (Coluber), 283. 

obtusus (Dipsas) (Telescopus), 283. 
obtusus (Tarbophis), 283, 362. 

obtusus (Telescopus), 283. 

occidentalis, var. See nigricollis (Naja), 322. 
ocellata (Empagusia), 138. 

ocellata (Lacerta), 210. 

ocellata (Lacerta) (Stincus), 210. 
ocellata (Mabuya), 210. 

ocellata (Tiliqua), 210. 

ocellata (Uromastix), 128. 

ocellatus (Chalcides), 210, 224, 361. 
ocellatus (Chaleides) (Gongylus), 211. 
ocellatus (Chalcides) forma typica, 213. 
ocellatus (Chalcides), var. humilis, 211. 
ocellatus (Chalcides), var. polylepis, 211. 
ocellatus (Chalcides), var. ragazzii, 211. 
ocellatus (Chalcides), var. tilugugu, 211. 
ocellatus (Chalcides), var. vittata, 211. 
ocellatus (Euprepes) (Gongylus), 211. 
ocellatus (Gongylus), 210. 

ocellatus (Monitor), 138. 

ocellatus (Scincus), 210. 


INDEX. 


ocellatus (Seps), 211. 

ocellatus (Seps) (Gongylus), 211. 
ocellatus (Stincus), 210. 

ocellatus (Tiliqua), 211. 

ocellatus (Uromastix), 127, 132, 361. 
ocellatus (Varanus), 138, 361. 
officinalis (Scincus), 205, 361. 
officinalis (Seincus), 201. 

officinarum (Vipera), 327. 

Oligodon, 277. 

oliviert (Euprepes), 193. 

oliviert (Lacerta), 161, 174. 

Ophidia, 233. 

Opisthoglypha, 281. 

ornatus (Monitor), 141. 

ornatus (Tupinambis), 141. 

ornatus (Uromastix), 128, 132, 361. 
ornatus (Varanus), 134, 141. 

oudrit (Ptyodactylus), 68. 

oudrii, var. See hasselquistii (Ptyodactylus), 68. 
oudrit, var. lobatus (Ptyodactylus), 68. 


pallida (Agama), 95 fn., 100, 125, 360. 
pallida (Chameleo), 225. 

pantherinus (Bufo), 351, 353. 

pardalis (Acanthodactylus), 151, 164, 361. 
pardalis (Eremias), 175. 

pardalis (Lacerta), 151. 

pardalis (Mesalina), 175. 

pavimentatus (Humeces), 196. 
pavimentatus (Humeces), var. syriacu, 196. 
pavimentatus (Plestiodon), 197. 
pavimentatus (Scincus), 196. 

pavo (Echis), 337. 

Pelomedusa, 360. 

pentoni (Bufo), 355, 362. 

petersii (Stenodactylus), 48. 

petrii (Stenodactylus), 45, 360. 
Phaneroglossa, 345, 

polylepis, var. See ocellatus (Chaleides), 211, 217. 
porosissima (Rana), 347. 

princeps (Euprepis), 196. 

Pristurus, 56. 

producta (Ceelopeltis), 292. 

producta (Rhagerhis), 292. 

producta (Rhagerhis) (Colopeltis), 292. 
Proteroglypha, 312. 

Psammophis, 295, 


INDEX. : 369 


Ptyodactylus, 60. saharicus (Chameleo), 226. 

puiseuxt (Ptyodactylus), 65. Salamandride, 359, 362. 

puleher (Monitor), 141. samharica (Lacerta), 143. 

punctatus (Psammophis), 295 fn. samharica (Latastia), 143. 

punctulata (Scapteira), 175. saurus (Monitor), 141. 

pyranidun (Scythale), 336. saurus (Varanus), 141. 

Python, 236 fn., 360. savignyt (Acanthodactylus), 151. 
savignyt (Acanthodactylus), var. schreiberit, 161. 

quadrilineata (Coronella), 274. savignyt (Agama), 95, 110, 119. 

quadrilineatus (Ablabes), 274. savignyt (Luprepes), 187. 

quadrilineatus (Callopeltis), 274. savignyt (Gecko), 89. 

quadrilineatus (Coluber), 274. swignyt (Hyla), 357. 

quinquestriata (Tiliqua), 187. savigny?t (Lacerta), 151. 

quinquetzeniata (Mabuia), 187, 195, 361. savignyt (Rana), 347. 

quinqueteeniata (Mabuya), 187. savignyt (Scineus), 187. 

quinqueteniatus (Huprepes), 187. savignyi (Tarbophis), 282, 361. 

quinqueteniatus (Scincus), 187. savignyt (Trapelus), 42, 45, 95. 
savignyi, var. See arborea (Hyla), 357. 

ragazzi, var. See hasselquistii (Ptyodactylus), 69. scaber (Dasypeltis), 278. 

ragazzil, var. See ocellatus (Chalcides), 211, 213. scaber (Gonyodactylus) (Cryptopodion), 54. 

Rana, 345. scaber (Gymnodactylus), 54, 360. 

Ranide, 345. scaber (Stenodactylus), 54. 

ravergueri (Coluber), 260. seabra (Dasypeltis), 278, 361. 

rayergieri (Zamenis), 260, 270. schneideri (Eumeces), 196, 361. 

ravergieri (Zamenis), var. fedtschenkoi, 260. schneideri (Scincus), 196. 

ravergieri (Zamenis), var. uummifer, 261, 361. schokart (Coluber) (Natriw), 295 fn. 

recticrista, var. vulgaris (Chameeleo), 226. schokari (Psammophis), 295, 362. 

regularis (Bufo), 353, 362. schreberianus (Bufo), 351. 

regularis (Bufo), var. spinosa, 353. Scincidee, 187. 

resimus (Causus), 326 fn., 362, Scincopus, 200. 

resimus (Heterophis), 326 fn. Scineus, 204. 

revorli (Eremias), 143, scincus (Lacerta), 205. 

Rhachiodontine, 278. scincus (Monitor), 134. 

Rhiptoglossa, 225. scincus (Monitor) (Psammosaurus), 134. 

rhodorhachis (Zamenis), 252, 270, 361. scincus (Psammosaurus), 134. 

rumulosus (Chameleon), 225. scincus (Varanus), 134. 

ritchi (Cerastes), 327. scutata (Eryx), 236. 

robustus (Hemidactylus), 80. scutellata (Lacerta), 161. 

rogersi (Zamenis), 254, 270, 361. scutellatus (Acanthodactylus), 161, 361. 

rubropunctata (Eremias), 183, 361. sebe (Python), 236 fn., 361. 

rubropunctata (Lacerta), 183. senegalensis (Cassina), 348 fn., 362. 

rubropunctata (Lacerta) (Eremias), 183. senegalensis (Cyclanorbis), Introd. lv, 360. 

rubropunctata (Mesalina), 188. sennaariensis, var. See jaculus (Eryx), 236. 

ruderata (Agama), 95, 95 fn. sepoides (Chalcides), 220, 224, 361. 

ruderatus (Trapelus), 100. sepordes (Chalcides) (Sphcenops), 220). 

rufescens (Lacerta), 196. sepsoides (Scincus), 220. 

rupestris (Coluber), 288. sepsowdes (Sctncus), var., 220. 


370 INDEX. 


sepsordes (Spheenops), 220. 

sibilans (Coluber), 302, 307. 

sibilans (Coluber) (Natriav), 302. 

sibilans (Psammophis), 302, 362. 

sibilans (? Psammophis), 295. 

siculus (Chameleo), 225. 

simoni (Podarces) (Mesalina), 175. 

sinaita (Agama), 106, 125, 361. 

sincata (Podorrhoa) (Pseudotrapelus), 106. 

sinaita, var. See turcicus (Hemidactylus), 83. 

sinaitica (Agama), 106. 

sinaiticus (Agama), 106. 

sinaiticus (Trapelus), 106. 

sinaitus (Hemidactylus), 83. 

sinaitus (Trapelus), 106. 

siphonorhina, var. See hasselquistii (Ptyodactylus), 
67. 

sitibunda (Bufo), 351. 

sitibunda (Rana), 351. 

situla (Coluber), 274, 361. 

spinipes (Mastigura), 130. 

spinipes (Stellio), 129. 

spinipes (Uromastiv), 129. 

spinosa (Agama), 114, 125, 361. 

spinosa, var. See regularis (Bufo), 353. 

spinosus (Bufo), 353. 

spinosus (Hoplopterus), 21. 

Squamata, 35. 

stellatus (Tupinambis), 140. 

stellio (Agama), 122, 361. 

stellio (Cordylus), 122. 

stellio (Gecko), 86. 

stellio (Lacerta), 122. 

stellio (Tarentola), 86. 

Stenodactylus, 35. 

Sternothzrus, 360. 

steudnert (Gymnodactylus), 48. 

steudneri (Stenodactylus), 48. 

steudneri (Tropiocolotes), 48, 360. 

sthenodactylus (Ascalabotes), 42. 

stincus (Lacerta), 205. 

sturti (Lacerta), 143. 

subcroceus (Chameleon), 225. 

sublevis (Boltalia), 77. 

subnigra, var. See ladaccensis (Zamenis), 252. 

subpunctata (Rana), 347. 

sudanense (Hemisus), 349 fn., 362. 


sudanensis (Kakophrynus), 349 fn. 

supercitaris (Rana), 347. 

superciliosa (Echis), 337. 

superciliosa ( Vipera) (Echis), 337. 
surinamensis, var. See jaculus (Eryx), 236. 
syriaca, var. See pavimentatus (Eumeces), 196. 


teniata (Coronella), 308. 

teniatus (Lycognathus), 308. 
Tarbophis, 281. 

Tarentola, 86. 

tatarica (Boa), 241, 

teherana, var. See jaculus (Hryx), 241. 
temporalis (Uromastiv), 131. 
tessellatus (Tropidonotus), 246, 361. 
Testudinide, 28. 

Testudo, 28. 

textilis (Coronella), 308. 

teatilis (Lycognathus), 308. 

teatilis, var. See cucullatus (Psammophylax), 308. 
thebaicus (Erix), 236. 

thebaicus (Eryx), 236, 361. 
thebaicus (Gongylophis), 236. 

thyro (Seincus), 210. 

tiligugu (Lacerta), 210. 

tiligugu (Scincus), 210. 

tiligugu, var. See ocellatus (Chalcides), 211, 213. 
tirus (Scincus), 210. 

tridactyla (Chalcides), 209 fn. 
tridactylus (Chalcides), 209 fn. 
triedrus (Hemidactylus), 80. 
trilineatus (Coluber), 274. 
Trionychide, 32. 

Trionyx, 32. 

tripolitanus (Stenodactylus), 47. 
tripolitanus (Tropiocolotes), 47, 360. 
triunguis (Testudo), 32. 

triunguis (Trionyx), 32, 360. 
Tropidonotus, 245. 

Tropiocolotes, 47. 

turcica (Boa), 240. 

turcica (Hria), 241. 

turcica (Eryx), 241. 

turcica (Lacerta), 80. 

turcica (Pseudoboa), 241. 

turcicus (Hrya'), 241. 

turcicus (Hemidactylus), 80, 360. 


turcicus (Hemidactylus), var. sinaita, 83, 360. 


typica (forma). See ocellatus (Chaleides), 213. 


tyria (Coluber), 267. 
Uromastix, 126. 


Varanide, 133. 

Varanus, 133. 

varia (Echis), 337. 

variabilis (Bufo), 351. 

variabilis (Bufo), var. crucigera, 351. 
variabilis (Rana), 351. 

variegatus (Scincus), 210. 
ventrimaculatus (Zamenis), 252, 256. 
vermiculata (Celopeltis), 289. 
vermiculatus (Coluber), 289. 
verrucosus (Hemidactylus), 80. 
verruculatus (Gecko), 80. 
verruculatus (Gecko) (Hemidactylus), 81. 
verruculatus (Hemidactylus), 80. 
Vipera, 327, 

vipera (Cerastes), 327, 362. 

vipera (Coluber), 327. 

Viperide, 326. 

yirldis (Bufo), 350, 362. 


INDEX. 


viridis (Bufo), var. balearica, 352. 

viridis (Rana) (Bufo), 351. 

viridis, yar. See haje (Naja), 313. 
| yittata (Mabuia), 193, 361. 

| vittatus (Euprepes), 193. 

vittatus (Huprepes) (Euprepes), 193. 
| vittatus (Scincus), 193. 


vulgaris (Bufo), 351, 353. 

vulgaris (Chameeleo), 225, 230. 

vulgaris (Chameleo), var. A, 225. 
vulgaris (Chameleo), var. recticrista, 226. 
vulgaris (Chameleon), 225, 232, 361. 
vulgaris (Chameleon), 230. 

vulgaris (Stellio), 122. 


Walterinnesia, 324. 

watsonana (Hremias) (Mesalina), 175. 
watsonana (Mesalina), 175. 
wilkinsonii (Stenodactylus), 45. 
wilkinsonii (Tolarenta), 42. 


Zamenis, 248. 
zeylanicus (Chameleo), 225. 
ziczac (Echis), 336. 


PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 


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