DRYMOICA ABERRANS. 
posteriorly ; toes moderately long and rather strong ; claws short, consider- 
ably curved and pointed ; the claw of the hinder toe the strongest. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. 
Lines. 
Inches. 
Lines. 
Length from the point of the bill to 
Length of the tarsus 
0A 
the tip of the tail 
5 
10A 
of the inner toe .... 
3 
of the bill to the angle of the 
of the middle toe . . . 
. . . . 0 
mouth 
0 
8 
of the outer toe .... 
0 
3f 
of the wings when folded . . . 
2 
4 
of the hinder toe .... 
24 
of the tail 
3 
2 
Male. — Colour of upper surface of head brighter, and the dusky umber- 
brown stripes or shades on the back more defined and clearer ; in other re- 
spects the colours are like those of the female. 
The only specimens of this species which I have seen, were shot near Port Natal, while 
perched upon some brushwood which skirted a tract of marshy ground. Before they resorted 
to the brushwood, they were observed flitting to and fro among strong rushes, as if in quest of 
their food, which was found to have consisted of insects. 
Although this bird does not exhibit what may be considered all the typical characters of 
Drymoica, it must, in my opinion, nevertheless be regarded as appertaining to that genus, and as 
being a species which must be ranked as one of the first in the division which includes the 
aberrant forms. The species represented in Plates 79 and 80 present characters still more 
remote from those of the true Drymoica, yet I cannot bring myself to separate them under 
another designation, inasmuch as I cannot discover any characters possessed by them which 
render them more distinct from the less perfect forms in the division comprising the typical 
species ol the genus, than I can perceive between the latter and the more highly typical species. 
When the species figured in this number and the preceding are viewed in succession, and when 
each species is compared with the one which appears naturally to stand next to it, no such 
modifications of structure can be discovered as to justify any one of them being regarded as 
appertaining to a form different from the rest. 
