116 THE EEPTILES OF EGYPT. 
Measurements of the largest male and female. 
(J. Snout to vent 126 mm., tail 220 mm. 
?• „ „ 95 „ „ 170 „ 
The females in the A. colonoriom group are, as a rule, smaller than the males. 
The food of this species consists largely of beetles, with an admixture of other 
insects. Dum^ril and Bibron mention a specimen of A. colonorum that had been taken 
in a nest of Termites. 
The specimens of A. spinosa in my collection were from the neighbourhood of 
Suakin, and were brought to me alive by the Hadendowahs, who said they obtained 
them on the hills and on the plateau at Erkowit. I did not observe it on the plain 
around Suakin or on the way to Tokar. 
For many years this species was represented in the British Museum only by 
three specimens from Egypt : one presented by Sir J. G. Wilkinson and two by 
Mr. James Burton. It is impossible to conjecture from what part of Egypt Wilkinson 
obtained his specimen ; but as the journeys of J. Burton are well known from the 
records he has left of them, preserved in the British Museum, I am inclined to 
think that he probably found them in his wanderings in the Eastern desert north of 
Keneh. It occurs also in the Sinaitic Peninsula. It has been recorded from 
Abyssinia and Shoa to the south. 
It is known to the Hadendowahs as the Woongailoom. 
This species is nearly allied to A. hartmanni, and perhaps more so to A. bibronii. 
The occipital is generally enlarged, but, like the other head-scales, it is liable to vary, 
and may only be slightly enlarged. The elongated scale on the front of the snout from its 
variable character is of no specific importance. A. bibronii has a tolerably well- 
developed fringe of pointed scales at the anterior border of the ear, and also more or 
less along the upper border as well. In A. colonoriom and A. hartmanni there are 
scales occupying a similar position, but they are but little developed and reduced in 
number. In A. spinosa no such scales are present, but their place is taken by 
foliaceous rosettes of scales. In A. spinosa, beside the rosette at the front border of 
the ear, there is a group of spines behind the opening, three on the lateral aspect of 
the lower jaw, and two large ones on the sides of the neck. The scales in these 
positions are much more strongly developed than in A. colonorum and A. hartmanni, 
but they are not so foliaceous as in A. bibronii. 
In the four species mentioned the dorsal scales are smaller than the caudals, and 
the former are nearly of equal size. They are perhaps on the whole largest 
in A. bibronii, which has 62-64 rows round the middle of the body ; whereas in 
A. colonorum they vary from 60-SO, in A. spinosa from 62-78, and in A. hartmanni from 
74-84. In all, the dorsal scales are more or less rhomboidal, mucronate, imbricate, 
