PIGMENTATION IN OLD AMERICANS HRDLICKA. 459 



are almost identical. In all the regions it is noticeable the females 

 present a larger proportion of darks than the males, indicating a 

 deep-rooted tendency in this direction. In the. New England States 

 there appear also more female than male blonds and less interme- 

 diates. The females show less intermediates throughout the series. 



A very interesting locality group is that of the more northern 

 Appalachian mountaineers. They show the least lights as well as 

 darks and by far the most intermediates of any of the groups. This 

 is in all probability the result of a more thorough intermixture, due 

 to interbreeding. The mountaineer, as long as he remains in the 

 mountains, marries almost invariably in the mountains. The group 

 affords a good indication of what would very likely eventually take 

 place in the whole body of Old Americans were there no mixture 

 from outside of their own circles. 



Our conclusions may be summarized in the statement that the 

 ordinary conception of the southern Americans being darker than 

 the " Yankees " or New Englanders is sustained to but a moderate 

 extent; that there is no appreciable difference, as relates to hair color, 

 between the southern and Old Americans at large, but that more 

 isolated groups in the South and possibly also in the North may be 

 expected to show more or less exceptional conditions, according to 

 ancestry and grade of intermixture or inbreeding. 



RED HAIR. 



The subject of red hair, like that of age changes in hair color, is 

 not yet fully understood and needs a thorough reinvestigation. The 

 two prevailing theories are first "that it is a variant of fair hair 

 because it so often accompanies a freckled skin and light eyes; the 

 other that it shows a mixture between a light and a dark race" 

 (Parsons, o. c, 182). The English records "seem to help both theo- 

 ries * * * Scotland and the north of England are the fairest 

 parts of the kingdom, and it is there that red hair is most marked, 

 but it is also well marked in Wales and in parts of Ireland, especially 

 Kerry, where the nigrescence is very high." 



From the English records it would appear that there is no regular 

 sex difference in the proportion of redness. In 66 locality groups 

 (Beddoe's observations), 30 show a larger percentage of reds in the 

 females, 32 in males, and in 4 the proportion was equal. The whole 

 group of Beddoe's males gives a red hair percentage of 4.4, the equally 

 large group of females 4.9. From the same data Parsons finds that 

 " red hair is more common in the upper than in the lower classes," 

 to which he adds (o. c, 182) that according to his own observations 

 not only is red hair commoner in the upper classes, but that these 

 classes have also an altogether lower index of nigrescence ; in other 

 words, are less pigmented than the lower. 



