39. Notes on the Recent Reptiles and Amphibians of Egypt, with a List of the Species recorded from that, Kingdom. By Major STANLEYSMYTH FLOWER, O.H.E., F.L.S., F.Z.S., late 5th Fusiliers. [lteceived &fay 23, 1933 : Read June 13, 1933.1 (Map and Text-figure 1,) CONTENTS. Page 1. Prefacc ......................................... 736 2. Acknowledgments ............................... 736 3. Reptiles and Amphibians of Egypt ................. 736 4. Notes on some particular Localities. ................ 737 6. Native Names ................................... 742 6. Notes in Systematic Order ........................ 744 7. Literature ...................................... 847 Localities of certain Specirs of Fishos, pp. 741 EU, 825. 1. PREFACE. The object of this paper is to show what species are known definitely to inhabit Egypt, that certain speeies said to occur there probably do not do so, to indicate the species which have been found in the countries bordering Egypt, and especially to call attention to interesting cases of geographical distribution which may help to throw light on the past history of the country. Thanks to Dr. John Anderson, P.R.S. (1833-1900), who in 1898 published the first volume of his ‘Zoology of Egypt,’ the work of the herpetologist in Egypt has been made very pleasant. In this handsome quarto volume the author’s literary skill and vast fund of historical, geographical, and zoological knowledge were given full scope to create a precious and enduring mine of information and reference. Anderson paid special attention, and spared no expense in suitably illustrating this book. His own artistic sense and devotion to accuracy are mirrored in the series of drawings, where each of the three artists, P. J. Smit, J. Green, and H. Gronvold, he selected for the work has produced plates which are so extremely good that it seems nnlikely they can ever be surpassed. Anderson’s most valuable field-work was done in the Red Sea Province of the Sudan ; in Egypt itself he appears to have only worked the neighbourhoods of Alexandria, Cairo-Giza-Helwan, Suez, Luxor, and Aswan ; and his collection was made up largely by purchases and by donations of spirit- specimens from friends. We know now that mistakes as to localities occurred. As Anderson’s death on 15 August, 1900, gave him no time to make corrections, the opportunity is taken of doing so in this paper. Very much more field-work remains to be done, especially in the great tract of hilly country that lies between the Nile and the Red Sea, and also to a lesser extent on the eastern side of the Sinaitic Peninsula and in the o&ms of the western desert. PROC. ZOOL. S00.-1933, 48 736 MAJOR STANLEY S. FLOWER : NOTES ON 2. ACKNOWLEDQMENTS. I have to thank Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., for the invaluable advice and assistance in all herpetological matters that he gave me throughout the earlier progress of this work, and for the continuation of this help at thc British Museum in recent years I am indebted to Mr. H. W. Parker and Dr. Malcolm A. Smith. The staff of the Zoological Society of London have on all occasions assisted me in many enquiries ; especially in connection with this paper I wish to rocord my thanks to Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, C.B.E., F.R.S., Mr. E. G. Boulenger, and Mr. I?. Martin Duncan. I have also to acknowledge gratefully my thanks to Lord Rothschild, F.R.S., for allowing me to use the magnificent library in his museum at Tring, and to Dr. E. Hartert, Dr. K. Jordan, F.R.S., and Miss Phyllis M. Thomas, for much help, especially in tracing obscure quotations. For opportunities of examining freshly caught and living specimcns 1 am indebted to many friends, especially to Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote (1876-1922), Mr. Arthur L. Butler, Brig.-Gen. F. FitzH. Lance, M.C., Mr. Michael J. Nicoll (1880-1925), and Major Maurice Portal, D.S.O. To Mrs. Stanley Flower I owe unending thanks, not only for help in observing and catching reptiles in Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, and the Sudan, but also for the great care she took in taming them and keeping them alive in captivity. 3. REPTILESAND A~HIBIANSOF EUYPT. Perhaps the main reason of our want of precise information on the fauna of Egypt is because the Egyptian Empire has varied in extent throughout the centuries in its eastern and southern frontiers. Successive travellers have pushed on to Palesthe, Syria, the Sudan, Eritrea, and even Abyssinia, and the collections that they brought back to Europe have been, as it were, “ pooled ” and all attributed to Egypt. To add to this confusion there has been, probably from time immemorial, a trade in the cities of Egypt by which natural curiosities could be acquired by tourists ; and the subject of Egyptian reptiles has been complicated by the special traffic in live snakes and lizards between the resident and the wandering ‘‘ snake-charmers ” and other performers in Asia and North Africa. The dealers were hardly so much to blame as was the credulity of the purchasers who created the demand, and within the last forty years the purchasers have educated the dealers to the-to them incomprehensible-fact that the value of a natural history specimen is enhanced if it has or is said to have an exact locality of origin. The country of Egypt under consideration in this paper and its divisions have been fully explained in my paper on the mammals of Egypt (P. Z. S. 1932, pp. 370, 371). The table on pp. 738-740 shows how the valley of the Nile appears to limit the distribution of many species in Egypt, and is a scheme arranged in fifteen columns to show the so far known distribution in Egypt of the species of Reptiles and Amphibians known to inhabit the Kingdom,. 1. Excluding Marine Turtles there are 77 species ; of these 43 can be called definitely Palaearctic and 18 Ethiopian forms. 2. From personal knowledge 18 species are found only near water, while +ti least 30 can be considered real desert forms, THE RECENT REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS OF EGYPT. 737 3. Far western desert and its oases ; almost unexplored zoologically ; only 7 species marked. 4. North-westcrn Egypt, Sollum-Mersa Matruh-Mariut : 20 species known. 5. Wadi Natron : several short collecting visits resulted in 13 species. 6. Fayum: 25 species, others will be probably found in the many small ravines. 7. Alexandria and neighbourhood, a well worked area for many years : 26 species. 8. Delta of the Nile in Lower Egypt : 16 species. 9. Giza area, west of Nile, fairly thoroughly explored : 30 species. 10. Cairo area, east of Nile, fairly thoroughly explored : 36 species. 11. Nile valley, upstream of Giza Province to Aswan town, at the foot of the 1st Cataract, rather superficially known : 24 species. 12. Nile Valley, from Shellal (Aswan) to Wadi Halfa : 14 species. 13. Arabian desert of Upper Egypt between the Nile Valley and Red Sea : almost unexplored zoologically, yet 18 species are known already. 14. Suez Canal Zone, west of the Canal, fairly thoroughly explored : 19 species. 15. Sinai is the richest part of Egypt herpetologically; it is by no means completely explored, and yet 42 species are known. 4. NOTESON SOME PARTICULAR LOCALITIES:- BELTIM,FARASKUR, HALAIB, WADI NATRON. Beltim is a locality brought into prominence by the many references to it in Dr. John Anderson’s volumes on the ‘ Reptiles and Mammals of Egypt ’; if all the species he mentioned had really come from there it would constitute the extraordinary fact that in the middle of the sea-face of the Delta there was an area of old land surface similar to that of the hill-desert east of Cairo which had never been submerged in recent geological time-in fact, it would prove that there had been from the time that the river Nile had first forced its passage to the Mediterranean Sea an eastern and a western river with a permanent dry island between. The geographical and historical evidence is against this. That the Nile has found many different ways through its Delta to the sea is well known, and has been illustrated excellently in the works of H. H. Prince Omar Toussoun (1922, 1923). Beltim is the chief village of the district, or “ Mamuria,” of Brullos, the most northern part of Gharbia Province, approximately halfway between Damietta and Rosetta, and isolated from the rest of the world by sea, lake, marshes, and soft sand wastes devoid of shelter or fresh water. Its land-fauna is therefore of interest, and proves to be what might be expected, that is an infiltrating colonization from east and west and some species brought by the Nile from the south ; these, now that a freshwater canal and a navigable drain have been constructed to Brullos, may be expected to increase. The district is only about 20 miles (32 kilos.) in length from east to west, and about 34 miles (5 to 6 kilos.) from north to south, so in several visits at different times of the year it has not been difficult to find out the main facts concerning its vertebrate fauna. Dr. Anderson unfortunately never went to Beltim. Colonel Sir John Godfrey Rogers, K.C.M.G., D,S,O,, R.A.M.C. (185o-le22) assured me that he collected 48* . L . ...................... ...................... ...................... ...................... .... ?F?: ???: ??? mm 'd Palaearctic or Ethiopian. : : : : : : : p Desert or water-loving. pup.: ppp 33 ________- ~. .................. Far western desert and its oases. ___ North-western Egypt, :::: x: x:::::::: x:: X Sollum. M. Matruh, Mariut : x:::::::::: x:: Wadi Natron. - j ::::xx:: x::: x:: x: x Fayum.