NO. 12 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS. I917 49 



As ill previous years. Dr. Bartsch kept a record of the birds 

 observed between ]\liami and the Tortugas. These notes, as here- 

 tofore, have been published in the Year Book of the Carnegie 

 Institution. An especially fine series of photographs of the birds 

 inhabiting the Tortugas was secured and will furnish the basis for 

 an article to be published in the near future in the Annual Report 

 of the Smithsonian Institution. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES OX OLD AMERICAN FAMILIES 

 BY ALES HRDLICKA 



In continuation of his researches on old American families. Doctor 

 Hrdlicka. in 1917. made trips to Yale. \ irginia. and Harvard L'ni- 

 versities. The last two were visited on the occasion of the "' Teachers' 

 Course " which brings to these institutions many adult individuals of 

 old American parentage from a large territory. The work was 

 greatly facilitated by the assistance received at Yale from Prof. 

 George Grant MacCurdy : at the University of \'irginia from Prof. 

 Robert Bennett Bean; and at Harvard from Prof. K. G. T. Webster. 

 The total number of subjects examined, mainlv for pigmentation of 

 hair, and eye and skin color, amoimted to over one thousand, all of 

 whom were Americans of at least three generations on both the 

 paternal and maternal sides of the family. 



The results which are now being elaborated for a report are of 

 uncommon interest. They show a number of important facts of 

 which we had no previous reliable knowledge. One of these is, in 

 brief, that there is no increase in the proportion or grade of pigmenta- 

 tion as we jDroceed from Xew England southward, and no increase 

 in blondness as we proceed northward from the Carolinas and 

 \'irginias. Another striking result shows that there are localized 

 peculiarities in pigmentation, especially that of the hair, but that in 

 every case these can be traced to the ancestry rather than to the 

 environmental conditions. The latter nevertheless appear to have 

 been active in general in reducing the total proportions of blondness. 



So far as the color of the eyes is concerned there were found 

 unexpectedly, in all the areas, a large proportion of " mixed " colors. 

 in other words eyes in which more (»r less marked traces of brown 

 co-exist with various shades of blue, green, or grey. 



Three cases were encountered in which the color of the two eyes 

 was markedly different. Pure, beautiful blues and browns were few 

 in number. 



