xii 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 
Haifa, 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 clone 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 and 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, excluding the Fayum, while from the centre of the Libyan 
desert only one reptile, viz. Coelopeltis monspessulana, has as yet been reported. 
The 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 
1 Since the above was in type, the destruction of Mahdisni has been achieved by Sir Horatio Herbert 
Kitchener ; and the frontier of Egypt has been re-established as far south as Fashoda and Sobat. 
