PREFACE. xi 



Egypt must be embraced in the Paleearctic region, and many of the 

 Egyptian snakes occur in Palestine. Of 91 known species of Reptilia, 

 Chelonia and Amphibia, 49 are Palsearctic ; among them Eryx jaculus, 

 traced from Egypt to Siberia, four species of Zamcnis, two of which, 

 Z. dahlii and Z. venirimaculahis, reach Kurdistan ; 27 of the Reptiha 

 are also African, among them Monitor niloiiais, Scinais officinalis, 

 Uromastix spinipes, and Naja haje ; four are Asiatic exclusively, but do 

 not extend into India beyond its frontier, as Vipera eupliratica. One 

 species of serpent, Daboia xanthina, belongs to a genus otherwise exclu- 

 sively Indian, and eleven species are peculiar. One of these is an 

 Ophidian, of the family Oligodontidce, which stands as the type of a new 

 genus, Rhyncocalanms, Giinther, of which the affinities are rather obscure. 



From this analysis it is evident that the herpetological fauna presents 

 fewer anomalies than the other classes. But snakes, in particular, are 

 more limited to the original locality of the individual. In these cases the 

 agencies are wanting by which a species is rapidly spread over a larger 

 portion of the globe in course of time, thus becoming mixed with foreign 

 forms ; and the groups, like individuals, are more stationary. Besides, 

 this class of life is more susceptible of climatic changes than any other, 

 and if any period of excessive cold, like the glacial epoch, had passed 

 over the country, the reptiles would be the first to succumb, without any 

 chance of their recovering their ground during subsequent modifications 

 of the temperature. Yet even here we can clearly trace anomalies in the 

 distribution, corresponding to the anomalies already mentioned, and to 

 which we do not elsewhere find a parallel. 



The fluviatile ichthyological Fauna, though limited in number of 

 species, is beyond comparison by far the most distinct in its character. 

 We find 43 species, of which only 8 belong to the ordinary ichthyological 

 fauna of the Mediterranean rivers. But these belong to the rivers of the 

 coast. In the Jordan system only one species out of 36 belongs to the 

 ordinary Mediterranean Fauna, viz., Blcnniiis bipidus. Two others, 

 Chromis niloticus and Clarias macracanthns, are Nilotic. Seven other 

 species occur in other rivers of South-western Asia, the Tigris, Euphrates, 

 etc. Ten more are found in other parts of Syria, chiefly in the Damascus 

 lakes, and the remaining 16 species of the families Chro^nidce, Cyprino- 

 dontidcB and Cyprinidce, are peculiar to the Jordan, its affluents, and its 



