TEOPIOCOLOTES STEUDNEEI. 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 praeanal 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 39 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 Eremias guttulata had retreated ; and this led me to look for it in other 
holes, with the success I have mentioned. It is quick in its movements, and from its 
small size, and tbe similarity of its colouring to the ground it frequents, it is very 
difficult to capture. 
