diff --git a/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py b/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py
index 3377cffcba2..01f4dc423e0 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py
@@ -1504,11 +1504,17 @@ class RequestTests(unittest.TestCase):
         interface even though HTTPError is a subclass of URLError.
 
         >>> msg = 'something bad happened'
-        >>> url = code = hdrs = fp = None
+        >>> url = code = fp = None
+        >>> hdrs = 'Content-Length: 42'
         >>> err = urllib.error.HTTPError(url, code, msg, hdrs, fp)
         >>> assert hasattr(err, 'reason')
         >>> err.reason
         'something bad happened'
+        >>> assert hasattr(err, 'hdrs')
+        >>> err.hdrs
+        'Content-Length: 42'
+        >>> expected_errmsg = 'HTTP Error %s: %s' % (err.code, err.msg)
+        >>> assert str(err) == expected_errmsg
         """
 
     def test_HTTPError_interface_call(self):