278 THE EEPTILES OF EGYPT. 
RHACHIODONTIN^E \ 
DASYPELTIS. 
Dasypeltis, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 178. 
Body elongate, rounded, or slightly compressed ; head small, short, scarcely distinct 
from the neck ; head-scales regular ; frontals and parietals subequal ; no loreal ; nasal 
semidivided ; no mental groove ; eye moderate, pupil vertical. Scales with apical pits, 
strongly keeled, lanceolate, in twenty-three to twenty-seven rows, three or four of the 
outer rows arranged obliquely and with serrated keels. Maxillary and mandibular 
teeth small, 3 to 7 in number. 
Dasypeltis scabka, Linn. (Plate XXXIV. fig 3, and Plate XXXIX.) 
Dasypeltis scabra, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. ii. 1894, p. 354, and iii. 1896, p. 648 ; Ann. Mus. Civ 
Genova, (2) xvi. (xxxvi.) 1896, p. 553; id. op. cit. (2) xvii. (xxxvii.) 1896-97, pp. 20 & 279 
Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) xix. 1897, p. 279; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 801 ; Bocage, Herpet 
d' Angola et du Congo, 1895, p. 107 ; Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 87 ; Werner, Verh 
zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlv. (1895) p. 193; Anderson, Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 114 
Bocage, Jorn. Sc. Lisb. (2) iv. 1896, no. 14, p. 78; Tornier, Kriechth. Deutsek-Ost-Afr 
1897, p. 78; Werner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xlvii. 1897, p. 399. 
Dasypeltis scaber, Gasco, Viagg. in Egitto, pt. ii. 1876, p. 119. 
Dasypeltis fasciata, Matschie, Zool. Jahrb. Syst. v. 1890, p. 617. 
1 2 . Fayum. A. R. Bird-wood, Esq. 
Snout short, broadly rounded anteriorly ; rostral broader than deep, slightly visible 
above ; internasals somewhat shorter than the prefrontals, sometimes coalescing and 
broadly in contact with rostral ; prefrontals prolonged down on to the side of the head, 
the sutures with the frontal posteriorly divergent ; frontal somewhat variable, longer than 
broad, shield-shaped, about twice as long as the distance between its anterior border and 
the end of the snout, traversed by a well-defined, broad, mesial furrow ; supraocular 
elongate, rather narrow, its greatest breadth less than half its leDgth, broadly in contact 
with the prefrontal ; parietals as long as or longer than the frontal, slightly divergent 
posteriorly or rounded ; one, seldom two prseoculars ; two postoculars, rarely one or 
three ; temporals 3-f-3 or 2 + 3 or 3 + 4, occasionally 1 + 3, the lowest anterior 
temporal occasionally enlarged ; seven or eight upper labials, sometimes six, the 
1 Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. ii. 1894, p. 353 : — " Only a few teeth, on the posterior part of the maxillary and 
dentary bones and on the palatines. Some of the anterior thoracic vertebra? with the hypapophysis much 
developed, directed forwards, and capped with enamel." 
