The misconception is that the finches provided Darwin with this great eureka moment in the Galapagos. He arrived, he sees little finches on the beach. He sees different beaks and thinks, "Ah, species change, it's evolution." They are really important as an example of what Darwin was trying to explain, but they weren't that for Darwin. The museum does however hold a set of bird skins that had largely been overlooked by the history books. Darwin's mockingbirds. Darwin collected a number of them from the South American mainland. When the expedition moved onto the Galapagos archipelago, Darwin found mockingbirds on several of the islands. In the Galapagos when he arrived he collected this bird here. On the second island he visited he collected this one here, the Floreana Mockingbird, and it was the differences between these two birds that got him starting thinking. Now, the reason he could think about these two birds and notice the difference is because of these ones.


达尔文看到加拉帕戈斯群岛的雀鸟后，灵光一现，就产生了这样的错觉。到达之后，看到海滩上的雀鸟，其鸟喙均不相同，就以为"物种变异了 这就是进化"。对于达尔文所要阐述的观点，它们是重要的例子但并非有力的论据。然而，博物馆确实藏有一套禽皮标本，而诸多史书完全忽视了它们，即达尔文的嘲鸫标本，其中一部分是达尔文在南美大陆收藏的探险队到达加拉帕戈斯群岛后。达尔文在数个岛上发现了嘲鸫。在加拉帕戈斯群岛的第一座岛上，他收藏了这只鸟。在第二座岛上，他收藏了这只查尔斯嘲鸫。这两只鸟之间的区别令他陷入沉思引起他注意，并思索这两只鸟的差别的原因，还是这几只。