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, Suffolk, 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, I 

 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) : "Each 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. 



