198 THE REPTILES OF EGYPT. 
The largest male and female in my collection measure respectively from snout to 
vent 159 and 165 millim., but their tails are imperfect. A nearly adult male and 
female have the following dimensions : — 
<J . Snout to vent 155 mm., tail 224 mm. 
$. „ „ 163 „ „ 254 „ 
I have met with this species — one of the most handsome of African lizards — in the 
semi-desert land to the west of Lake Mareotis, not far from the ruins of the country 
palace of Said Pasha, and known as the Maryut District. I first observed it among 
some heaps of stones on a slope of rising ground beside a field of stunted barley. It 
disappeared quickly among the stones, but with the aid of a pickaxe it was dug out, at 
no great depth, from a hole that had been tenanted by a snake that had recently cast 
its skin. All the specimens I obtained, about 12 in number, were captured within a 
radius of a few hundred yards from the foregoing spot, some of them in the loose sandy 
soil of the barley-fields. 
I have opened the stomachs of three specimens. In one I found the remains of a 
large scorpion, and in the others the hard remains of beetles. 
As far as I have been able to ascertain, it occurs only in the northern portion of the 
delta, and in the section of it immediately to the west of Alexandria. It is quite 
possible, however, that it may be found in other parts, on the outskirts of the delta, 
presenting similar conditions to those at Maryut. 
One of my specimens came from Marsa Matru, 150 miles to the west of Alexandria, 
and, some years ago, a collector I sent from Tunis to Duirat, on the confines of the 
western frontier of Tripoli, brought back three specimens from that region. It has also 
been recorded by A. Dumeril from the south-eastern portion of Algeria. From Egypt 
it ranges through Palestine, Syria, Turkish Armenia, to the Trans-Caspian (Kopet- 
dagh), Persia, and Baluchistan. 
In Lower Egypt, it varies but little, but the lobulation of the ear becomes more or 
less modified in some. In Syrian specimens the body is much thinner in some than in 
others, and these correspond to the lizard described by Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire as S. pavi- 
mentatus, figured, pi. iv. fig. 4, in the 'Descr. de l'Egypte,' and therefore presumably from 
Egypt. I have never met with lizards of this somewhat attenuated type, and I am not 
aware that they have ever been found in Egypt since the publication of the great French 
work. In Syria, however, such forms do occur, and if they are present in Egypt they 
should be sought for on the eastern side of the delta, towards Tel el Kebir. Professor 
Boettger has described these Syrian forms and their colour-variations, which he is 
disposed to attribute to changes that take place in the lizards between the young 
and adult conditions. As all my specimens of what may be regarded as the typical 
form are adult, they throw no light on this subject. 
In some of the Syrian examples of this species, a remarkable simulation, so to speak, 
