PIGMENTATION IN OLD AMERICANS HRDLICKA. 



465 



Old Americans: Contrast of hair and eye color. 



1 To each category is added one-third of the reds 



There is seen to exist a marked general correspondence of lights 

 with lights, medium hair with mixed eyes, and of darks with darks; 

 but already these gross figures show more light eyes than light hair 

 and more dark hair than dark eyes, indicating that on the whole 

 the hair tends towards a greater pigmentation than the eyes. It is 

 known that this tendency, while universal, is particularly notice- 

 able in certain districts or among certain racial groups in Europe. 

 The Irish are a good example. 



Additional features of interest so far as the eyes of the Old 

 Americans are concerned, are shown by a more direct classification: 



Old Americans: Color of eyes, details. 



Light-blue eyes are more than twice as common in the males as 

 in the females; the medium blues are about equal in the two sexes; 

 the deep blues are nearly twice as frequent in the females as in the 

 males. There is therefore a tendency in the males toward the 

 lighter, in the females toward the darker shades of blue. This is 

 in all probability connected with the general tendency of the females 

 toward a greater eye pigmentation, which is shown very plainly by 

 the browns. The females show also less of both the pure greenish 

 and the grayish eyes, which most likely is equally due to the phe- 

 nomenon just mentioned. 



We may well ask in this place just why this tendency toward 

 greater pigmentation in the female hair and eyes should exist. So 

 far as the writer knows, while the fact has been recorded again and 



