38 THE EEPTILES OE EGYPT. 
When Audouin's part of the ' Description de l'Egypte ' appeared 1 , 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 ' Regne 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 ' Regne Animal,' the probability is that the portion of the ' Descr. de l'Egypte ' 
written by Audouin was published about the same time as Cuvier's work. 
The gecko (Suppl. pi. i. fig. 4) regarded by Audouin as a variety of T. savignyi is 
a distinct species, as pointed out by Cuvier, and is the species which I have recently 
described as S. petrii from specimens collected by Prof. Petrie at Tel el Amarna. 
Dumeril and Bibron considered all the foregoing figures in the ' Descr. de l'Egypte ' 
as representing one species, but their illustration of 8. 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. pi. 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 8. guttatus, but which is specifically the same as 8. jpetrii. 
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 8. mauritanicus 
stand towards 8. elega.ns. I have not been singular in this experience, as Mr. Bou- 
lenger, who at first regarded S. wilkinsonii 2 as a distinct species, afterwards considered 
it and 8. mauritanicus to be specifically identical with S. elegans. He says 3 : — " 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 
1 On the 19th March, 1825, Corbiere, the Minister Secretary of State for the Dept. of the Interior, 
addressed a letter to M. Jules-Cesar Savigny requesting him to bring his part of the ' Descr. de l'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. 
1 Cat. Liz. B. M. i. 1885, p. IS. 
3 Trans. Zool. Soc. liii. 1891, p. 108. 
