CCELOPELTIS MONSPESSULANA. 
291 
except by making every effort to escape. The Bedouins who were with me when I 
captured them seemed to dread this snake as much as they do the cobras, and asserted 
that its bite was fatal. 
I have not been able to ascertain its native name beyond this : that the two 
Bedouin youths who used to accompany me in searching for snakes, when they saw a 
large black example of this species shouted out j^J [ jZJ>*- = hanash asivad = " black 
snake," expressing great dread of it. Forskal mentions a snake under this name as 
harmless. 
Measurements &c. (in millim.) of C. monspessulana, Hermann. 
Sex. 
S 
6 
Total 
length. 
Tail. 
Ven- 
trals. 
Anal. 
Cau- 
dals. 
Scales. 
Upper 
labials. 
Labials 
entering 
orbit. 
Pra- 
oculars. 
Relation of 
prteoeulars 
to frontal. 
Post- 
oculars. 
Tem- 
porals. 
Na- 
sals. 
Loreal. 
Locality. 
Maryut 
District. 
942 
1100 
265 
292 
170 
171 
1/1 
1/1 
93 
91 
19 
19 
8 
8 
4&5 
4&5 
1 
1 
B.C. 
B.C. 
2 
2 
2 + 3 
2 + 3 
L.3 1 
R. 2 
1 
2 
2 
6 
496 
126 
174 
1/1 
101 
19 
8 
4&5 
1 
B.C. 
2 
2 + 3 
1 
2 
„ 
6 
1235 
312 
177 
1/1 
94 
19 
8 
4&5 
1 
B.C. 
2 
2 + 3 
1 
2 
Alexandria. 
S 
1143 
290 
170 
1/1 
93 
19 
8 
4&5 
1 
B.C. 
2 
2 + 3 
1 
2 
Mandara. 
Two figures of this snake appear in the ' Descript. de l'Egypte.' One (Suppl. pi. v. 
figs. 3i & 3s) is a very fine figure of an adult of the uniform type of coloration; the 
second (Suppl. pi. v. figs. 2 1 & 2 ->) is an equally good representation of a half-grown 
individual. Neither of these figures was dealt with by Is. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, nor 
were they identified by Audouin beyond being designated by him " Couleuvres." 
The description of the snake La Couleuvre maillec, so called because the black spots 
that ornament its back have been compared to the spots on a young partridge, was 
drawn up from a specimen. Is. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire linked with his description the 
poor figure of a snake, fig. 6, pi. vii. ; this snake he called C. insignitus. Dumeril and 
Bibron, accepting Is. Geoffroy's identification of his snake with the drawing, quote the 
latter as an illustration of C. monsiiessulana. This I cannot accept, as it appears to 
me, after a careful study of the figure in question, that Is. Geoffroy was really dealing 
with the two species, his specimen being C. monspessulana, and the figure C. moilensis. 
The drawing does not depict the concave head of the former species, but the shorter 
1 On the left side the nasal is broken up into 3 shields, and the supranasal forms the upper border of the 
nostril. On the right side the nasal is broken up into 3 shields, but only two portions enter into the forma- 
tion of the nostril, the lower detached portion, resting on the rostral and on the first and second labials, being 
excluded. The supranasal and prefrontal define the anterior and upper borders of the nostril. 
2p2 
