he Desert Monitor, Varanus griseus, is a species of monitor lizard found in North Africa and western Asia The teeth of Varanus griseus are acute andcompressed. Its snout is depressed at the end, as long as the distance from the anterior border of the orbit to anterior border of the ear; canthus rostralis distinct. Its nostril is an oblique slit, about four times as distant from end of the snout as from orbit. Digits are rather short. Tail round or slightly compressed. Scales of head, including supra-oculars, very small, granular, subequal. The scales on the upper surface are small, smooth or feebly keeled; those on the sides of the neck generally conical in adult specimens. Abdominal scales of the Desert Monitor are smooth, in 110 to 125 transverse series (counted from collar-fold to groin). Its caudal scales more or less distinctly keeled; no caudal crest. Greyish yellow, sometimes with more or less distinct brown cross bars on the back and tail and brown streaks along the sides of the neck. Young monitors have round yellow spots and dark brown cross bars and temporal and cervical streaks; a few brown lines across the snout and short vertical brown lines on the lower lip.