364 



THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE CHAP. 



that the infant is like any other of the same race is received 

 with contempt. But every one admits that " like begets 

 like." 



This likeness between offspring and parent is often far 

 more than a general resemblance, for peculiar features 

 and minute idiosyncrasies are frequently reproduced. 

 Yet one must not assume that because a child twirls his 

 thumbs in the same way as his father did, the habit 

 has been inherited. For peculiar habits may readily 

 reappear by imitation, and peculiarities of structure 



FIG. 116. DEVONSHIRE PONY, SHOWING THE OCCASIONAL OCCURRENCE 



OF ANCESTRAL STRIPES. 



(From Darwin.) 



because the offspring grow up in conditions similar to 

 those in which the parents lived. 



Abnormal as well as normal characters, innate in 

 the parents, may reappear in their descendants, and the 

 list of weaknesses and malformations which may be 

 transmitted is long and grim. But care is required to 

 distinguish between reappearance due to inheritance and 

 reappearance due to similar conditions of life. 



Then there is a strange series of facts showing that an 

 organism may reproduce characteristics which the parents 



