150 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 
common on the waste land and along the roadways immediately within and without 
the ramparts of Alexandria, and, indeed, along the entire surface of the delta from Port 
Said to the Maryut District, wherever there may be gravel and a few plants. It is 
found in suitable localities as far as Wadi Haifa, and probably much further to the 
south. 
It lives chiefly on small beetles and flies. Its keen sight and the wonderful rapidity 
of movement which characterize it and all the members of this genus, as well as those 
of the genus Eremias, render it most expert in capturing its prey. 
Gravid females of this genus, in the months of January and April, had generally two 
mature eggs in each oviduct. 
It is known to the Arabs as 4^ —sihliya, or lizard, a term applied by them also 
to the members of the genera Eremias, Mabuia, and Chalcides. 
In order to ascertain the character of the lepidosis throughout Egypt and the 
surrounding area in which this lizard is found, I have counted the scales in 269 
specimens. 
The typical form of this species, as distinguished from var. aspera, is confined to the 
sea-face of the delta — that is to say, the lizards of that area are generally characterized 
by more numerous scales than are to be found in other parts of Egypt. At Assuan, 
Luxor, Tel el Amarna, Gizeh, in the Cairo district, Suez, the Eastern Sudan, the 
Sinaitic Peninsula, and Arabia the scales fall to a lower number than in the deltaic 
lizards, as in the latter the scales start nearly from the maxima of the former and rise 
almost to 58. The highest number found in var. aspera in the Nile valley proper is 48, 
whereas the maximum of 51 occurs in only a single specimen among 33 from Suakin. 
Although high numbers are occasionally reached in var. aspera, they are as a rule 
exceptional. At Assuan, in 8 out of 10 specimens starting at 38, the highest number is 
44, but in the remaining two it is 47. Much the same condition is present in the 
other localities — e. g., at Tel el Amarna the highest prevailing number in 29 specimens 
is 43, as only in 4 out of the 29 do higher numbers occur. At Gizeh, which yields 
the most representative examples of var. aspera, the number 43 is not exceeded in 
33 specimens. On the other hand, at Abukir, no lizard is represented with fewer 
scales than 51 ; but, although the scales may fall at Ramleh to 48, only 5 out of 13 
have fewer scales than 50. In the same way at Alexandria the number may be as low as 
46 ; but out of 28 specimens 16 have more than 50 scales, the numbers rising to 58. On 
the western frontier of Tripoli (Duirat) the coarse form of lepidosis prevails, but 
specimens with 51 scales may be exceptionally met with. In Tunisia, Central Algeria, 
and in the Algerian Sahara the low numbers distinctive of var. aspera prevail. The 
same also is true of the Sinaitic Peninsula, Southern Syria (Dead Sea), and especially 
of Aden and Hadramut, Arabia, the Eastern Sudan, and the coast-line of Abyssinia 
(Annesley Bay). 
I have never experienced any difficulty, except in a limited number of cases, in 
separating out these Egyptian lizards to their respective groups by the eye alone, without 
