ERTX THEBAICUS. 237 
1 £". Fayum. Major R. H. Brown, R.E., C.M.G. 
1 ? . Tel el Amarna. Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. 
2 <J and 2 ? . Kamak. 
3 J 1 , 3 ? , and 1 juv. Suakin. 
2 ? . Tokar. 
2 ? . Durrur. 
Scales on the upper surface of the head small and smooth ; anterior nasals and 
internasals enlarged; rostral large, with an angular labial border. Eyes separated 
above by 10 to 12 rows of scales and surrounded by 12 to 15 scales ; 5 or 6 scales 
between the eyes and the nasal, and generally 2, rarely 3, scales between the eyes 
and the upper labials; 11 to 15 upper labials, generally 13. Mental groove absent 
or rarely present. 43 to 52 scales round the body, smooth or feebly keeled 
anteriorly, but strongly carinate on the posterior third of the body, especially on the tail. 
171-197 ventrals, 1 anal, and 19 to 28 subcaudals. Tail short, conical, more or 
less pointed, and when perfect terminating in a conical scale. 
General colour yellowish, with large, irregular, more or less transverse, purplish- 
brown markings, frequently confluent on the mesial line of the back, and prolonged on 
to the sides, on which there are occasionally detached similarly-coloured spots, sepa- 
rated from each other by narrow irregular interspaces of the ground-colour. A dark, 
generally ill-defined, oblique, irregular line from the forehead through the eye. In 
others (Suakin) the upper surface is nearly uniform purplish brown, the pale inter- 
spaces being almost lost. Under surface yellowish, immaculate. 
It attains to 645 millim. in length, of which the tail measures 49 millim. 
The two species of this genus met with in Egypt and the Eastern Sudan are found 
on the margin of the desert and in dry situations in the alluvium. 
E. thebaicus is very common in Upper Egypt, but is much less so in Lower Egypt, 
and it does not appear to be found to the north of Cairo. It is the only species 
present at Suakin. It is widely distributed over East Africa, and, according to 
A. Dumeril, extends westwards to Senegal 1 . 
The members of this genus burrow in non-indurated sand. They are very gentle 
in their disposition and seldom attempt to bite. Their food consists of small 
lizards, such as Stenodactylus elegans, the remains of which I have removed from the 
stomach of E. thebaicus. After they have seized their prey they envelop it in their 
coils, much in the same way as does a python. 
According to Dr. Zander 2 , who with Dr. F. Werner 3 , has given an interesting 
1 Professor Boettger, in his " Die Reptilien und Amphibien von Maroeco. — II." (Abh. Senck. nat. Ges. xiii. 
1884, p. 104), included E. thebaicus, Reuss, and quoted Giintber, apparently by mistake for Sdnter, as his 
authority ; but the evidence adduced as a proof of its existence in that region of Africa is inconclusive. 
2 Zool. Garten, xxxvi. 1895, p. 331. 
3 Op. cit. xxxvii. 1896, p. 80. 
