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.