322 THE EEPTILES OF EGYPT. 
and modern ; but as the TJrceas asp was occasionally represented on the monuments 
with wings, this may possibly have accentuated the belief in such flying monsters. 
It is the favourite snake of snake-charmers and jugglers, doubtless owing to the 
striking attitude it assumes when irritated, and the dread in which it is generally held 
by reason of the deadly character of its poison. 
Naja nigricollis, Eeinhardt. (Plate XLV.) 
Vipera (Na'ia) haje, part., Is. Geoffr. St.-Hilaire, Descr. de l'Egypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1827, p. 157, 
pi. vii. fig. 3. 
Naia nigricollis, Blgr. Cat. Snakes B. M. iii. 1896, p. 378; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1891, p. 308; op. cit. 
1896, p. 216; Bocage, Jorn. Ac. Sc. Lisboa, (2) iv. no. 14, 1896, pp. 79, 95, et 113, no. 15, 
p. 178; Blgr. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, (2) xvii. (xxxvii.) 1896-97, pp. 13, 21, et 279 ; Ann. & 
Mag. N. H. (6) xix. 1897, p. 280 ; Troc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 801 ; Mocquard, Bull. Mus. Paris, 
1896, p. 59; Tornier, Kriechth. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. 1897, p. 84. 
Naja nigricollis, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 88. 
Naja nigricollis, var. occidentalis, Bocage, Herpet. d' Angola et du Congo, 1895, p. 135. 
1 ? . Assuan. 
Neck dilatable ; snout broad ; rostral much broader than high, the portion above 
more or less rounded posteriorly, equal to about one-half of the distance between its 
hind border and the frontal ; internasals smaller than the praefrontals, their mesial 
suture equal to about two-thirds of the length of the suture between the praefrontals, 
more or less in contact with the prseocular, or excluded by the praefrontals, with which 
and the frontal they form transverse sutures ; frontal equal to the breadth of a supra- 
ocular, longer than the conjoint sutures of the praefrontals and internasals, its anterior 
breadth equal to its length or nearly so; parietals as long as the conjoint lengths of 
the frontal and of the prefrontal suture ; two praeoculars (occasionally only one), not 
reaching the upper surface of the head, broadly excluded from the frontal by the 
praefrontal and supraocular, more or less in contact with the internasal or excluded 
from it ; subocular absent (rarely present) ; two or three postoculars, the lowest in 
contact with the fourth labial; temporals 2 + 3 or 2 + 5; six upper labials, rarely 
seven, the third generally enters the orbital margin or may be excluded from it by a 
separated off portion of itself (subocular) ; sixth labial long and narrow, at the angle 
of the mouth ; anterior chin-shields in contact with four labials, broader, as long as, or 
somewhat shorter than, the posterior pair, the latter widely separated by 2 or 3 scales. 
21 to 29 scales across the neck; 19 to 25 across the middle of the body. Ventrals 
183-228 ; anal 1 ; subcaudals 56-58. 
General colour of the upper surface (Egypt) moderately pale olive-brown, the skin 
between the scales almost black ; many of the scales towards the hinder part of the 
body with their bases black and their tips paler than on the rest of the body, this 
