58 



Tliere is another feature, best marked in the adult male from 

 Hadir el Kabir, less distinct in the other male, and absent in the 

 young specimen, that calls for remark, as it is very rarely present 

 in this species. It consists of the presence at the anterior 

 border of the ear-opening of numerous spiny scales. A specimen, 

 however, from the Mokattam hills, near Cairo, with the nasal 

 formula E.L.3N., shows slight indications of the existence of 

 similar scales, in the same position. 



After a careful consideration of over sixty specimens of the 

 geckoes of this genus from Palestine, the Dead Sea area, the 

 Sinaitic Peninsula, the Hejaz, Maskat, the region between Shoa 

 and Assab, the Nile Yalley from Wadi Haifa to Suez, and from 

 Algeria, I have arrived at the conclusion that the various modifi- 

 cations met with over the region indicated can be regarded in 

 no other light than as illustrating the essentially polymorphic 

 character of this species first described by Hasselquist from 

 Lower Egypt. 



Agama siNAiTA, Heyden. 



1 c? . El Haggarieh between Medina and Mecca. 



1 d . Near Medina. 



The former has the following measurements : — Snout to vent 

 94 ; tail 172 ; length of head 24 ; width of head 22. Wrist in 

 advance of the snout. Fourth toe reaches to anterior angle of 

 eye. The scutes covering the bases of the claws, and the brown 

 spines, on the under surfaces of the digits, are very well defined. 

 Both have larger scales than specimens from the Nile Valley, and 

 in this respect they resemble those from the Hadramut. 



Agama etjderata, Olivier. 



4 c? from near Medina. 



These specimens are undoubtedly referable to this species. 

 They have the characteristically enlarged scales on the body, 

 limbs, and base of the tail. One has the head-scales nearly 

 smooth, while, in the other, they are more or less convex. I have 

 examined one of Olivier's specimens, from Arabia, preserved in 

 the Paris Museum ', with which these specimens practically agree, 

 but the spines over the ears are more numerous and better 

 developed than in Olivier's specimen, and the few spiny scales on 



^ It is preserved in the bottle numbered 2127, and the specimen itself bears 

 a label no. 2G10. 



