ZAMENIS RAVERGIERI. 261 
The largest specimen recorded by Mr. Boulenger is 1330 millirn. long, the tail 
forming 320 millim. 
It is distributed over Turkestan, Afghanistan, Persia, and Transcaucasia. 
Var. nummifer, Keuss. (Plate XXXVII. fig. 2.) 
Couleuvre, Savigny, Descr. de 1'Egypte, Hist. Nat., Suppl. PI. Rept. pi. iv. (1813) figs. 61-63. 
Coluber nummifer, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 135. 
Coluber (Periops) nummifer, Riippell, Mus. Senck. i. 1845, p. 308. 
Zamenis hippocrepis, nov. sp. ? or juv. of var. ?, Giinther, Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 104. 
Zamenis caudalineatus, part., Giintli. Cat. Snakes B. M. 1858, p. 104; Tristram, West. Palest., 
Rept. & Batr. 1884, p. 144. 
Periops neglectus, Jan, Elenco, 1863, p. 60; Icon. Gen. livr. 48, 1876, pi. iv. fig. 3; Steindacb. 
linger & Kotscby's Inseln Cypern, 1865, p. 572; Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. ii. 1876, p. 116. 
Zamenis (Periops) neglectus, Boettger, Zeitsch. ges. Nat. (Giebel) xlix. 1877, p. 286. 
Zamenis ravergieri, Klunzinger, Zeitschr. Ges. Erdk. Berl. xiii. 1878, p. 95 ; Blgr. Ann. Mag. N. H. 
(6) ii. 1888, p. 506. 
Zamenis neglectus, caudcelineatus, &c, F. Muller, Verb, naturf. Ges. Basel, vi. 1878, p. 667. 
Zamenis ravergieri, var. nummifer, Reuss, Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1880, p. 154. 
Zamenis nummifer, Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1891, p.. 633 ; Cat. Snakes B. M. i. 1893, p. 407 ; id. 
op. cit. iii. 1896, p. 625 ; Peracca, Boll. Mus. Torino, ix. 1894, no. 167, p. 12 ; Anderson, 
Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 107. 
1 $. Beltim. 
2 juv. Margin of desert, Heluan. Dr. Adalbert Fenyes. 
This variety is distinguished from the typical form more or less by the slighter 
extent in which the upper prseocular plate is in contact with the frontal, so much so 
that the two are sometimes not in contact ; by the frequent coalescence of the two 
prseoculars, and by the presence generally of a third postocular produced by the upper 
portion of the sixth labial becoming cut off from the plate itself, so that this labial is 
excluded from the orbit ; in such cases, as a general rule, only the fifth enters, but when- 
ever only two postoculars are present the sixth enters the eye. The upper labials vary 
from 8 to 10, but these two numbers are very exceptional, 9 being almost universal. 
The temporals vary in size, but those of the first series are not so scale-like as in the 
typical form. The scales round the body are, as a rule, more numerous than in the 
Eastern snakes, as they vary from 23 to 25. There are 197-216 ventrals, and 74-101 
subcaudals ; the anal is sometimes single. 
General colour pale pinkish grey or bright olive-grey, with a dorsal series of large, 
rounded, dark brown spots margined with darker, and a lateral series of smaller, similarly 
coloured, more or less quadrangular spots alternating with them ; on the tail the dorsal 
and lateral spots are continued as three dark longitudinal lines. A large dark brown 
spot with darker margins on each side of the frontal and on each supraocular ; a short, 
