Slug or Horned Viper?

Abstract

As my, name was mentioned by Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell in his letter in NATURE of May 17 on the identification of a certain animal represented among the incised carvings at Karnak, may I point out that the figure in question is the Egyptian hieroglyph for the letter F? I am informed by my colleague, Mr. A. Shorter, of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum, that the animal portrayed in that symbol was identified as a slug so long ago as last century, the identification being based on a representation published by Prisse (1847), but that it has been more commonly recognised as the horned viper (Cerastes cornutus (Linn.)). The ‘horns’ in the figure, if somewhat exaggerated, are like those of the viper and do not resemble the tentacles of a Veronicella (the slug which has been suggested), in which there are in fact two pairs of these appendages. The clearly defined head and slender ‘neck’ which are shown in the Karnak figure are not found in Veronicella.