I'm John Batsch who was Stephen Moss, the author and producer.

His new book is The Ten Birds to Change the World.

We come to a myth that I grew up with, everybody else grew up with, and the BBC reinforced in 1979,

1978 with some spectacular presentations.

I watched as a younger person.

I remember the 20th century. Stephen Moss is with me, the author of the new book, 10

books, 10 Birds that changed the world. This changed my life and now he's changed it back again.

It has to do with the Galapagos Islands,

where I've never been,

but my daughter happily went there

and tells me the finches are doing fine.

However, those finches and the myth of Darwin, well I'll tell it quickly because Stephen's going to correct the record.

The story I had was that Darwin, on the voyage of the the beagle arrived to the Galapagos and observed taking

notes of all the different birds on the different Galapagos islands and how they were different. The bills were bigger or smaller, the

colors were different, and came up with the idea that the reason they're

different is because they evolved to fit the circumstances, the weather, the food patterns, and they're

isolated. They can't easily travel to the mainland. That was what I grew up with and

now Stephen the facts are a that was what i grew up with and now

staving the facts are astonishing

i think darwin mentioned finches once curious finches that's about it right

so how did we get the story that's right in the original species well of

course as you say it is absolutely true that a bird from the mainland probably from

...