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. 
