53 



PsAMMOPHIS BCHOKAEI, Forskll. 



Coluber scJioJcari, Forakll, Descr. Anim. 1775, p. 14. 



Coluber lacrymans, Reuss, Mus. Senck. i. 1834, p. 139. 



Psammophis punctatus. Dam. & Bibr. Erpet. G-enl. vii. 1854, 

 p. 896, Atlas, pi. 77, fig. of skull. 



Psammophis sibilans, var. ?, Blytli, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxiv. 

 1855, p. 806. 



Psammophis sibilans, var. hierosolimitana, Jan, Elenco, 1863, 

 p. 90 ; Icon. G^nl., Livr. 34, Mars 1870, pi. iii. fig. 2. 



Psammophis sibilans, var. punctata, Jan, Elenco, 1863, p. 90 ; 

 Boettger, Kobelt Eeis. Alg. & Tun. 1885, p. 462. 



Psammophis condanarus, var. sindanus, Stoliczka, Proc. As. 

 Soc. Beng. 1872, p. 83. 



Psammophis leithii, Blanford, part., Eastern Persia, Zool. & 

 G-eol. ii. 1876, p. 421 : part., Blgr. Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Zool. 

 v., 1889, p. 103 ; part., Eauna Brit. Ind., Eept. 1890, p. 365. 



Psammophis moniliger, var. hierosolimitana, Boettger, Ber. 

 Senck. Nat. Ges. 1878-79, p. 65 ; id. loc. cit. 1879-80, p. 163. 



Psammophis moniliger, var. punctata, Boettger, Ber. Senck. 

 Nat. Ges. 1879-80, p. 164. 



Psammophis lacrymans, Boulenger, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, 

 p. 538 ; Anderson, op. cit. p. 655. 



1 c? , half-grown. 



This specimen belongs to the variety in which the colour is 

 uniform, there being no longitudinal brown bands. It is pale 

 greyish olive above, becoming still paler on the tail. The upper 

 and lower labials, the throat, and the free margins of the ventrals, 

 on the anterior fourth of the snake, are dotted with blackish. 

 This type of coloration is found at Aden, in the Sinaitic Penin- 

 sula, and at Maskat. It occurs throughout Egypt, from Cairo 

 to Khartum, and at Durrur on the coast of the Ked Sea. It is 

 also found in Persia, and as far east as Sind. Although I have 

 never met with the striped form in Egypt proper (Nile Valley), 

 it occurs at Suakin, which is close to Durrur, also at Maskat, in 

 Persia (Jask), and in Afghanistan. A similar coloration is also 

 essentially characteristic of the species in the extreme western 

 limit of its distribution, on the margin of the desert (Sahara), 

 in Tunisia, and Algeria. 



It is generally found on the confines of the stony desert, with 

 which its colour is in unison, but, at Suakin, where it is more or 



