CERASTES COBNUT US. 335 
The presence or absence of horns does not depend on sex, as has been frequently 
supposed. 
In one of the females from Gizeh and in another from Suakin there is partial 
division of the anal. 
This species is distinguished from C. vipera by the scales between the eyes 
superiorly, around the eyes, between the labials and the eyes, and across the body 
being more numerous. It has also many more ventrals and subcaudals. A viper from 
Algeria described by Dumeril and Bibron as Echidna atricauda is stated to have had 
150 ventrals, 35 subcaudals, and 35 rows of scales, numbers which preclude its having 
been an example of C. vipera, as the highest number of ventrals and subcaudals 
respectively as yet recorded in it are 122 and 26. They had, however, before them 
specimens presented to the Paris Museum by Doctor Clot Bey, an Egyptian official, 
which, from the name they selected for the species, were probably C. vipera. 
The figure of this species as a hieroglyph occurs frequently on the monuments of 
Egypt. There is no evidence to prove that it was sacred to any god, but Herodotus 
states that it was found embalmed at Thebes. 
