326 THE EEPTILES OE EGYPT. 
VIPERIDiE i. 
CERASTES. 
Cerastes, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 1830, p. 178. 
Body cylindrical, stout ; tail short ; head markedly distinct from the neck, covered 
with small, more or less tubercular, slightly imbricate scales, with or without supra- 
ocular appendages ; nostrils directed more or less upwards ; nasal single or semidivided ; 
eye well-developed, small scales between it and the labials ; pupil vertical. Scales 
in 23-35 rows, those of the back more or less longitudinal, imbricate, with short club- 
shaped keels not reaching to their tips, those of the sides oblique with serrated keels ; 
ventrals laterally angulate ; anal entire, rarely divided ; subcaudals double. 
1 The first two of the four following vipers are mentioned here as they may possibly be found to have 
a more northerly distribution, and to enter Egypt like Naja nigricollis and Dasypeltis scabra. The second 
two are noticed for the reasons mentioned under each. 
Caustjs eesimus, Peters. 
Heterqphis resimus, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1862, p. 277, pi. fig. 4. 
This little specialized viper, with its head covered, like a colubrine snake, with symmetrical shields, and 
with its fangs, as pointed out by Mr. Boulenger, placed in the posterior end of the maxillary, exactly as in 
the Colubrine Opisthoglyphs, is present at Sennaar. The species was originally described by Peters from 
a specimen obtained in that locality by Dr. Hartmann. It has since been recorded from Lamu, Mkonumbi, 
Ngatana, Lake Tanganyika, and Angola. 
Bins arietans, Merrem. 
Eiippell obtained the puff-adder in Kordofan, and Dr. A. Hartmann (Eeise durch Nordost-Afr. 1859-60 
(1S63) p. 283) met with it on his and Baron von Barnim's journey across the Bayuda desert from Debbeh to 
Khartum. Marno records its presence on the sands of the steppes of Kordofan, near the Kile. 
Attention may be here called to the fact that the highly specialized viperine genus Atractaspis, with great 
poison-fangs, but with its palatine and mandibular teeth nearly suppressed, is represented at Wadelai by 
two species, viz. A. irregularis, Eeinh., and A. aterrima, Giinther. 
VlPERA AMMODYTES, Linn. 
Linnaeus, in the ' Amcenitates Academics ' (vol. i. 1749, p. 506, pi. xvii. fig. 2 ; Syst. Nat. i. 1766, p. 376), 
recorded Vipera ammodytes from Libya on the authority of Jonston (Hist. Quadr. et Serp. lib. ii. 1657, 
p. 11, tab. i. fig. ammodites), who quoted Solinus as the source of his information. 
A closely allied species to V. ammodytes, viz. V. latastii, Bosca, is present in Algeria, but how far it 
ranges to the east is unknown. It may possibly extend into Libya; but, however this may be, it is quite 
certain that no viper with an erect nasal appendage has ever been recorded from Egypt. Daudin states that 
