290 THE EEPTILES OE EGYPT. 
Head moderately long, rather deeply concave in the mesial line from before backwards ; 
canthus rostralis prominent, continuous with an outwardly projecting supraocular ; 
rostral slightly broader than high or as high as broad, slightly visible from above ; 
iaternasals much smaller than the prefrontals, their suture less than one-half of the 
length of the suture between the praefrontals ; frontal long and narrow, considerably 
exceeding the distance between its anterior border and the tip of the snout, and as 
long as the parietal, and its greatest breadth less than one-half of its length ; parietals 
longer than broad, posterior borders usually rounded ; two loreals, rarely one, the 
anterior the smaller, resting on the second and third labials ; one praeocular, entering 
largely on to the tipper surface of the head, broadly in contact with the frontal ; two 
postoculars, rarely three; temporals 2 + 3 or 2 + 4, anterior pair rather large; 8 upper 
labials, the fourth and fifth entering the orbit, or rarely 9, with the fifth and sixth in 
the orbit ; two pairs of chin-shields of nearly equal size, but the posterior pair the 
larger, anterior pair in contact with 4 or 5 labials. Scales in 17 to 19 rows, rarely 20, 
longitudinal mesial line more or less feebly concave. 160-189 ventrals ; anal 1/1 ; 
subcaudals 68-102. 
Pale yellowish olive-brown above, with four broken lines of black spots, each about 
the size of a scale, at intervals of one or two scales, all the scales being more or less 
margined with yellowish white. Between the upper lines of spots there are connecting 
narrow, irregular, not well-defined, whitish cross-bands, which disappear on the hinder 
part of the body. Ventrals and subcaudals yellowish, finely punctulated with black 
and marked with large yellowish spots ; the first 30 or 40 ventrals almost brick-red, 
punctulated and tending to form a mesial line. Upper surface of head marbled brown 
and yellow. Fully-grown individuals uniform, almost blackish, brown above and 
yellowish or yellowish green below, or spotted above here and there with obscure 
isolated dark brown spots, some of the margins of the scales, especially those of the 
sides, with whitish spots ; sides of the head with a few yellow spots or markings. 
It attains to 1820 millim., of which the tail measures 355 millim. 
It appears to be confined to the seaward portion of the delta, and Strauch remarks 
that in Algeria he found it only near the coast. It is not at all uncommon. I have 
found it only in the semi-arid land outside Alexandria, and on the sandy and dry semi- 
cultivated land of the Maryut District. 
This species is present in North Africa, from the delta of the Nile to Morocco, aDd 
it has recently been recorded from Portuguese Guinea. It occurs around the Medi- 
terranean 1 , from Spain and Portugal to Palestine, the Sinaitic Peninsula and Arabia, 
also in the islands of Cyprus, Chios, and Lampedusa (Florence Museum), and extends 
to the Caucasus and to Persia. 
It lives on small mammals, birds, and lizards. It has the reputation of being fierce 
and irascible, but the four specimens I captured did not attempt to defend themselves 
1 It has recently been recorded from the Eoman province of Italy. 
