Reading time: ~2 min read
In fact, it's rather surprising that finches living on the Galapagos Islands should have been given Darwin's name, because he was not the first one to discover them. Actually, they had been known for a long time before. Captain James Colnett, for example, had referred to them back in 1798.220 Furthermore, contrary to what most people imagine, while Darwin was on the Galapagos Islands, his observation of the finches was rather superficial. His travel notes contain only one reference to the finches, and that he never mentions them at all in The Origins of Species.221
In fact, Darwin attached importance to the finches only long after his voyage. While he was actually on the Islands, he did not find them worthy of much interest, collecting specimens of only nine of the 13 species. And he described only six of these as finches, describing the others as other species of bird. In short, he was unable to fully distinguish the finch species, and also failed to establish a connection between beak shape and feeding habits. He did not even note which bird species was particular to which island. As stated by Michaela Hau and Martin Wikelski of University of Illinois "Due to this oversight during his visit of the Galapagos archipelago, Darwin did not recognize the potential importance of the finches for the theory he developed later.222
The well-known British ornithologist John Gould studied in detail the finch specimens Darwin had collected in 1837, and concluded that these birds were unique to the Galapagos and that most of Darwin's records were wrong. Examination of the finches caught by the Beagle's crew and the regular records they kept brought Darwin's errors to light.223
Frank Sulloway, a historian of science, stated that with regard to these birds' feeding habits and geographical distribution, Darwin's thinking was limited and, to a large extent, incorrect.224 About the claim that Darwin took the Galapagos finches as evidence for evolution, Sulloway said. "Nothing could be further from the truth"225
In short, following long years of traveling, Darwin concluded that the finches could represent an example of evolution—but in so doing, he based himself of deficient and mistaken data. Actually, it was in fact not Darwin who mythologized the Galapagos finches, but 20th century evolutionists. The term Darwin's finches was first used by Percy Lowe in 1936, and the ornithologist David Lack spread the use of the term. Lack's 1947 book Darwin's Finches was a standard-bearer for evolutionary propaganda in this area.226 With his support for neo-Darwinism's claims, he made the tale of Darwin's finches known to everyone; their so-called evolution has since been studied more than the other bird families.227
References
- Dr. Robert Rothman, "Darwin's Finches," 2001, http://www.rit.edu/~rhrsbi/GalapagosPages/DarwinFinch.html ↩
- Jonathan Wells, Icons of Evolution, New York: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2000, p. 160 ↩
- Michaela Hau, Martin Wikelski, "Darwin's Finches," Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, 2000, ğ.els.net ↩
- Carl Zimmer, Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, New York: HarperCollins, , 2001, p. 32 ↩
- Frank J. Sulloway, "Darwin and His Finches: The Evolution of a Legend," Journal of the History of Biology, Vol. 15, 1982, p. 36. ↩
- Frank J. Sulloway, "Darwin and the Galapagos," Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Vol. 21, 1984, pp. 29-59. ↩
- David Lack, Darwin's Finches, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1947. ↩
- Lee Spetner, Not By Chance!, New York: The Judaica Press, 1998, p. 202. ↩