262 THE EEPTILES OE EGYPT. 
oblique, dark band below the eye and a similar band from behind the eye to the angle 
of the mouth, and another on the temporal region ; labials and chin-shields with dark 
margins. These head-markings are more or less obsolete in adults. Underparts 
yellowish white, obscurely clouded in some with greyish ; the sides of the belly with 
a series of black spots. 
Mr. Boulenger gives the following as the dimensions attained by the variety, 
viz. : total length 1030 millim., tail 2o0 millim. 
It is present in Lower Egypt from Heluan to the Mediterranean coast, and beyond it 
ranges to Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and to the islands of Cyprus and Rhodes. 
It is known in Egypt as i^ „s,I = ar'am leiti. 
cj l i_s .. . p-y 
Linnseus described, under the name of C. tyria ', a snake which, we are informed, was 
collected by Hasselquist in Egypt, and that had 210 ventrals and 83 subcaudals. 
It has been conjectured by some herpetologists that it might possibly have been 
Zamenis diadema, while by others it has been referred with doubt to this variety of 
Z. ravergieri ; but as the type specimen seems hopelessly lost, all speculation regarding 
it is useless. 
On the fourth Supplementary Plate of Reptiles of the ' Description de l'Egypte,' 
bearing the date 1S13, there is an excellent life-sized figure of an unnamed snake, of 
which no mention is made in the test, beyond indicating it and some others under the 
general term Couleuvre. Ruppell, in one of his journeys to Egypt (1821-1834), 
obtained a snake which Reuss identified with the foregoing figure and described 
as C. nummifer. It was also in the second decade of this century that James Burton 
(afterwards Haliburton), who sailed for Egypt in 1822, obtained his specimen, now 
preserved in the British Museum. 
In 1878, M tiller, of Basel, pointed out that the snakes from Cyprus and Beirut 
described by Jan in 1803 as Periops neglectus were identical with Z. ravergieri, Menetr., 
and with the Z. caudcelineatus, Gi'mther ; and a year or so later Professor Boettger, in 
dealing with a number of specimens from Syria and Palestine, agreed with Miiller's 
identification, but advanced a further stage, and pointed out that the C. nummifer, 
Reuss, with which they corresponded, could only be regarded as a variety or local form 
of Z. ravergieri. 
The accompanying table brings out clearly wherein they differ, and the details given 
in it appear to prove the correctness of Professor Boettger's conclusion. It will be 
1 It is difficult to conjecture what led Linnaeus to apply the term tyria to the snake in question. It is 
noteworthy that an old author * says : " In Mari Mortuo Tyrus serpens invenitur, uude tiriaca conflcitur." 
This substance was the preparation made from one of the Viperidce, and used as an antidote in snake- 
poisoning. 
* Breydenbachius, in ' Peregrinatione, &c.,' Mogunt., fol., 14S6, quoted by Hermann, Obs. Zocl. 1804, 
p. 284. 
