THE UNDERLYING^ IDEA 53 



There is another process by which new variations 

 may arise and which is more easily understood. It 

 is the method of double parentage. The Barred 

 Plymouth Rock chicken had its origin in such a 

 double ancestry. The one parent was a Black Java 

 whose color has disappeared entirely in the cross, but 

 whose single comb with its few large points comes out 

 clearly in the newly produced fowl. The other parent 

 was a Barred Dominique. It is to this parent that 

 the Plymouth Rock owes the interesting cross mark- 

 ings on its feathers. The comb on the head of the 

 Barred Dominique is of the type known as the rose- 

 comb, having many rows of slight projections. This 

 has completely disappeared from the Plymouth Rock 

 fowls. I am told that the skilled chicken fancier can 

 tell, concerning many points in this fowl, to which of 

 the crossed ancestors each quality is due. To a cer- 

 tain extent it is undoubtedly true that here we have 

 the secret of the origin of many of those interesting 

 people whom we are pleased to call geniuses. They 

 may not possess any qualities not clearly discernible 

 in various of their near ancestors, but in them we find 

 what we, for the lack of a better understanding, call 

 chance combination in one individual of the finer quali- 

 ties of many ancestors, and this individual is so placed 

 in life as to have these qualities developed and 

 strengthened. 



