581 
I. 
ON THE “HAIRY” VARIETY OF THE MOORHEN 
{GALLINULA CIILOROPUS). 
By J, II. OunxEY, Jux., F.Z.S. 
Read 2^th September, 1883. 
All varieties among birds are curiou.s ; particularly when their 
mison d'Hre is not clear. Why should the so-called Sabine’s Snipe 
be so uniform? Why should certain i.slands produce a melajiism 
of the Blackcap, and others an albinism of the Raven? Do 
bultcolo,.rc,l Sparrows lay abnormal eggs; and i, a Liliputian 
it-lark, such as \va.s killed at Brighton (now in i\fr. :Monk’s collec- 
tion at Lowes), merely a dwarf, or something else ? What makes a 
Greenfinch and a Siskin turn yellow, and why are pied Rino- Ouzels 
always pied about the head, and why do Bramblings soLtimes 
Jiavo black chins ? A hundred such questions might be asked 
and the solution of them made an interesting problem, without 
touching on the two kindred fields of hybridism and climatic 
variation. 
The “hairy” Moorhen is a variety which, looking only to the 
prevailing colour of its plumage, might not inaptly be termed 
the tawny Moorhen.* Its rufous back has in more than one 
instance suggested hybridism with the Land-rail.f It is how- 
ever no hybrid, but a variety simple and pure, and as stran-e 
and unaccountable a one as has ever been recorded. Attention 
Moorhens, but I 
aclniit It IS not quite a satisfoctory word. Professor Newton suggests 
decorticated as a better epithet. Mr. Stevenson prefers “ hairlike.’’ 
• ! Jiybrid between a Moorhen an.l a Coot is said to have been obtained 
m America (‘Ibis,’ 1SS4, p. 216.) uuiaineti 
