82 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 
imbricate scales, with large tubercles on the radial portion ; hind limb with granules 
and intermixed large tubercles. Abdominal scales small, smooth, imbricate, rounded 
or hexagonal. Tail longer than the body and head, variable, somewhat depressed at 
the base, cylindrical beyond, and tapering to a fine point, covered with minute scales 
arranged in feeble verticils and with transverse rows of keeled tubercles ; under 
surface covered with more or less transversely enlarged plates. Four to ten prseanal 
pores, exceptionally two. 
Colour light brown, greyish, sandy yellow or pink above. In the dark specimens 
of the Mediterranean coast-line and from along the banks of the Freshwater Canal at 
Suez, and in those from the Nile valley, the body and head are covered with dark 
blackish-brown spots and markings, the spots generally involving a number of tubercles 
or single tubercles, many of the tubercles being white. Occasionally the dark 
markings on the body tend to form transverse bands ; a dark brown band from the eye 
to the snout and from the eye along the temporal region, sometimes broken up into 
spots. Underparts white. The geckos from Ras Gharib and from the island of 
Shadwan conform to the general colour of their surroundings and have a pinkish tinge, 
the markings being obsolete or nearly so, while those from Tor in the Sinaitic Peninsula 
are greyish pink. 
The following are the measurements of the largest females in my collection : — 
Snout to vent 59 millim., tail 64 millim. ; snout to vent 56 millim., tail 67 millim. 
It will be observed from the foregoing list of specimens that I obtained only two 
from up the Nile, viz. from Edfu and Wadi Haifa. I never observed it myself in the 
neighbourhood of Cairo ; but it is found there, as I am indebted to Dr. W. Innes for a 
specimen from the Mokattam Hills. It is more plentiful along the sea-face of the 
delta, from Maryut to the east, and is occasionally found around Suez. Mr. John 
Strathearn informs me that it is not uncommon on the island of Shadwan ; and as 
Mr. James Robertson was so good as to send me three specimens from the neighbour- 
hood of the lighthouse of Ras Gharib, it seems to be well represented there. It is 
common at Suakin. 
The specimens captured at Maryut were found under stones amid the ruins of 
Said Pasha's palace, and those at Alexandria in a house ; while the one from Shaluf I 
came across in digging out a NesoJcia from its burrows among grass on the banks of 
the Freshwater Canal. 
Besides its circum-Mediterranean distribution, the African portion of which extends 
from Algeria (Gervais, Guichenot,&c.) through Cyrenaica {Reichenow) to Egypt {Gray), 
it spreads southwards along the Nile valley to Sennaar {Peters), Abyssinia {Hey den), 
Somaliland {Vaillant), Eritrea, Assab {Giglioli and Boulenger), northwards along the 
coast of Egypt. It occurs also in the Sinaitic Peninsula {Werner and Anderson), 
Arabia Petrsea {Ruppell), Hadramut {Anderson), Persia {Boulenger), Baluchistan 
{Boulenger), Sind {Murray and Boulenger). 
