258 VARIETIES OF COLOUR 



uniformity of species is maintained, suffers some exceptions 

 Children do not always resemble their parents ; and hence 

 we have occasionally persons produced in each race with 

 characters approaching to those of the other races. Among 

 tlie white races of Europe scattered instances of individuals 

 with skins nearly as dark as those of the Mongols or South 

 Sea Islanders are not unfrequent. I lately saw a girl whose 

 dark olive skin and jet black hair, very much like those of 

 a Chinese, joined to English features, made me suppose that 

 there was some mixture of blood : it turned out, however, 

 that her parents were both English ; the mother dark, but 

 not of so deep a tint as the daughter, and the father fair. 

 Among the Otahelteans, descended from the Malay race, 

 individuals with light brown or sandy hair, and fair com- 

 plexion, are not very uncommon *: and Forster saw, in the 

 island of Otaha, a man with fair freckled skin and red hairf. 

 Red-haired individuals have been observed in most of the 

 dark nations, as the Wotiaks, Eskimaux, islanders of New 

 Guinea and New Zealand, and the Negroes J. The origin 

 of Albinos, particularly in the dark races, is a remarkable 

 example of native variety of colour. 



In the mixed breeds, too, although the children generally 

 partake of the character of both parents, they sometimes 

 resemble one only ; and in such a case, the influence of the 

 other is often observed in the second or third generation. 

 Children may be seen like their grandsires, and unlike the 

 father and mother. 



Fit quoque, ut iiiterdum similes existere avorum 

 Possint, et referant proavorum saepe figuras, 



Inde Venus varias prod licit sorte figuras, 

 IMajorumque refert voltus, vocesque, comasque. 



LucRET. lib. ii. 



* Forster Obsv.ona Voyage round the World; p. 229. 



+ Ibid. 230. 



:♦: Bi.uMENBACH de G. II. Var. Nat. p. 169. He himself saw a Mulatto 

 with red hair, of which he procured a specimen. A man of mulatto com- 

 plexion, freckled, with strong red hair, disposed in small wiry curls, and 

 born of black parents, was seen by AVuvterbotto^t, ii. 170 ; who met 

 with others having red complexion and hair; i, 193. 



