Darwin's Finches
 
Darwin's Finches

    Darwin's Finches are similar to those on the South American mainland, but show extensive variation in the forms of their beaks, even between adjacent islands. Note the narrow beaks [left] on fly-catching species, versus the heavy, nut-cracking beaks [right].

    These specimens were collected by Darwin himself and are kept in the British Museum. The white tags are Darwin's originals, and follow standard conventions for such identifications that are used in essentially the same form in the 21st century. In Volume 3 of the Zoology of the Beagle, the ornithologist John Gould described fifteen new species from the Galapagos Archipelago.
The two specimens with added red tags have been designated as type specimens from which new species were first described.


Text material © 2018 by Steven M. Carr