338 THE EEPTILES OF EGYPT. 
each alternate with the dark brown areas of the back ; the front line of dorsal scales 
more or less spotted with black ; head generally brown, with a varying number of 
yellowish or greyish-yellow bands, reducing the brown colour to a well-defined, 
almost black band behind the eye, a spot below the eye, and to a few irregular bands, 
lines, or spots on the upper surface of the head, sometimes assuming the form of 
cruciform markings. Under surface white, with some black spots on the angles 
of the ventrals and some indistinct spots on the mesial line ; on the subcaudals the 
spots tend to arrange themselves as a median longitudinal band or line. 
The foregoing is the general colour of this viper in Egypt, but in India the dark 
brown of the upper surface is frequently lost, and of the pale transverse bands only the 
mesial dorsal dilatation remains as a white spot with a dark margin, while their lateral 
portions assume more or less the character of ocelli. 
It attains to 830 millim. in length, of which the tail forms 184 millim. 
It is not common in the neighbourhood of Cairo (Mokattam Hills and around the 
Pyramids of Gizeh). It is especially abundant at Suakin and Durrur. It is found in 
Abyssinia, Somaliland, Nubia, and as far south as Lake Stephanie, and ranges westwards 
to Togoland, and is in all likelihood spread all over Africa north of the Equator. In 
Asia it is present in Arabia and Southern Palestine to Tianscaspia, and eastwards to 
Singhbhum, in Bengal, and southwards in India to the Carnatic. 
It is not confined to arid or semi-arid plains and rocky hillsides, but it is common 
on the sandy, grassy, and acacia-studded plains of Suakin and Durrur, and in India 1 it 
is met with on sandy but forest-land in the Godaveri valley. It is generally found under 
stones. It is nocturnal in its habits, and, according to Dr. Gunther, Scolopendrce form 
part of its food, as he has removed their remains from its stomach. Dr. Stoliczka says 
that it feeds almost exclusively on insects. 
It is known to the natives of Egypt as <ujj .L = ghariba. 
1 Some startling statistics regarding the profusion in which this species is alleged to occur in the Batnagiri 
district in the Konkan, on the east coast of India to the south of the city of Bombay, have been published 
by Mr. G. "W. Vidal, C.S. (Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. v. 1890, pp. 64-71). He says " it may be safely 
concluded that of the whole number of snakes annually destroyed throughout British India," and which for 
1885 and 1886 he puts down at 420,044 and 417,596 respectively, " considerably more than one-half, 
consisting almost exclusively of individuals of the Echis species, are killed at Batnagiri alone ! " (the sign 
of exclamation is Mr. Vidal's and is very appropriate and significant). Taking the number of snakes 
destroyed in the Batnagiri district in a period of six years at Mr. Vidal's annual average of 225,721, and 
dividing this by 365, for the days of the year, we are to understand from Mr. Vidal's statistics that more 
than 618 vipers were daily destroyed in his district. When the price for each Echis earinatus was tentatively 
raised by the Government, in 1862, to two annas a specimen, we are told that 115,921 were "killed and 
brought in for rewards in Batnagiri within eight days (December 2nd to 10th)!" The only rational 
explanation of these statistics is that a mistake occurred somewhere. Unless every snake was effectually 
destroyed when it was paid for, the mounting up of the numbers captured and submitted for payment 
could be easily accounted for. 
