In 1835 Darwin arrived in the Galapagos Islands, where he spent two months. There he discovered a family of Mimid birds that were related to the species he had encountered in Chile. He observed that they differed markedly in appearance on each of the islands of the archipelago. He concluded that these birds had a common ancestor, but evolved into different species in different environments (the so-called Darwin's finches).
From his trip to the Galapagos, Darwin brought back to England specimens of 186 species (97 of which were previously unknown), as well as detailed geological descriptions of the islands.
