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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [VOL. XLIV 



corded as of "intermediate" color, while 460, or 36 per 

 cent., were given as blond and 302, or 24 per cent., as 

 brunet. In the ' ' Family Eecords ' ' the nomenclature sug- 

 gested was: "Complexion or skin color: / (fair), i (inter- 

 mediate), br (brunet), d.br (dark brown)," etc. The 

 returns in the family records are for 1,098 children, of 

 whom 326, or about 29.5 per cent., are given as of "inter- 

 mediate" color; 635, or 58 per cent., as fair, and 137, or 

 about 12.5 per cent. ; as brunet. Evidently "blond" is 

 used in a more restricted sense than "fair" by the pop- 

 ulation who filled out the blanks in question. All records 

 together are of 2,394 children. Of these there are 843 in- 

 termediates, or 35.2 per cent., 1,129 "blond" or "fair," 

 or 47.2 per cent.; and 422 "brunet," or 17.(5 per cent. 

 We thus see that only a little over one third of the chil- 

 dren are recorded as having an intermediate skin color, 

 while to nearly half are assigned the term "blond" or 

 "fair." The "brunets" are a relatively small propor- 

 tion of all children in the families under consideration. 

 "Blond" and "fair" have certainly been used too 

 broadly and this must affect somewhat the clearness of 

 our results. However, taking the returns as they come, 

 we shall be able to deduce certain conclusions of im- 

 portance. 



In the following tables we have entered the grand- 

 parental data as given. We have, however, not used in 

 the statistics the grandparents as parents, not only be- 

 cause in that case only a single child of the family is 

 known, but especially, because the order of accuracy of 

 the grandparental data is, on the whole, inferior to that 

 of the parents and children. By and large, the grand- 

 parental data are highly suggestive, but exceptional cases 

 must be lightlv weighted. 



(a) Blond X Blond (Tables Ia, Ib).— From two 

 "blond" or "fair" parents 526 children were altogether 



per cent., were "brunet." Owing to the fact that the 

 number of brunets given is very small and because it 



