144 NATURAL INHERITANCE. [cuAr,
and the inner of a hazel. The proportion between the grey and the hazel varies in different, cases, and the eye-colour is then described as dark grey or as hazel, according to the colour that happens most to arrest the attention of the observer. For brevity, I will henceforth call all intermediate tints by the one name of hazel.
I will now investigate the history of those hazel eyes that are variations from light or from dark respectively, or that are blends between them. It is reasonable to suppose that the residue which were inherited from hazel-eyed parents, arose in them or in their predecessors either as variations or as blends, and therefore the result of the investigation will enable us to assort the small but troublesome group of hazel eyes in an equitable proportion between light and dark, and thus to simplify our inquiry.
The family records include 168 families of brothers and sisters, counting only those who were above eight years of age, in whom one member at least had hazel eyes. For distinction I will describe these as " hazeleyed families;" not meaning thereby that all the children have that peculiarity, but only one or more of them. The total number of the brothers and sisters in the 168 hazel-eyed families is 948, of whom 302 or about one-third have hazel eyes. The eye-colours of all the 2 x 168, or 336 parents, are given in the records, but only those of 449 of the grandparents, whose number would be 672, were it not for a few cases of cousin marriages. Thus I have information concerning
