The Beak of the Finch Chapter Summary & Analysis - Part 3, Chapter 16 Summary

Part 3, Chapter 16 Summary

Darwin took the innocence of the birds and animals of the Galapagos as proof that Lyell's second volume of "Principles of Geology" theories were true. Although the entire book was an argument against evolution, one theory in the book was that by introducing a new player to an area, everything would change. The example in the Lyell's book was the introduction of polar bears into Iceland. Darwin used his own example in his book, "The Origin" using cats introduced to a village. Each example lays out the possible outcomes of the introduction of a new species to each of the situations. For Darwin it was proof of the competition between species.

Hermon Carey Bumpus was teaching biology at Brown University in 1898, when he noticed this evolutionary invasion. English Sparrows had been introduced to the United States in 1851, and though a winter storm killed many of the sparrows around...
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