424 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
coloured varieties, which were no doubt similar in 
character to the above, as Mr. Frere remarks, “the 
person who killed them had a fancy that they were a 
hybrid between the water-hen and common corn-crake,” 
an idea more than once mooted by friends (but little 
acquainted with ornithological matters), on examining 
my specimens. In 1864, Mr. J. H. Gurney observed 
one in a birdstuffer’s shop at-Reading, which had been 
procured in that neighbourhood; and another, killed 
at Bramford, near Ipswich, Suffclk, on the 16th of 
December, 1847, is minutely described in the “ Zoolo- 
gist’ for 1848 (p. 2067) by Mr. F. W. Johnson.* It 
is somewhat remarkable that this strange condition of 
plumage should be found in so many instances in birds 
of this species, for although examples in other genera 
exhibit, at times, indications of imperfect moulting, 1 
am not aware of any similar case in which the character 
of the bird is so entirely lost owing to a mere physical 
defect. 
A curious instance of malformation in the feet of 
a water-hen shot at Pulham, in 1847, is thus described 
by Messrs. Gurney and Fisher in the (“ Zoologist,” 
(p. 1601) :—‘* Hach of the hind toes of this bird pos- 
sesses a second claw, which on the right foot merely 
springs from about the middle of the true toe; but in 
the left, is attached to a second toe, which proceeds 
from the original one, about half-way from its junction 
with the tarsus. The supplemental toe and claws are 
in each case attached to the outside of the true hind 
toe. 
In the L’Estrange “ Household Book”’ this species is 
* This is the same bird mentioned by Morris, (“ British Birds,” 
vol. v., p. 43), although his description is not quoted from the 
“ Zoologist.” It is singular, however, that so marked a peculiarity 
in the plumage of this species, should have escaped the notice of 
other British authors. . 
