Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

Naturalists from around the world studied the beaks of Darwin's finches for more than four decades. Some scientists believed the beaks prove nothing, and the finches were nothing more than hybridized groups. Others set out to prove the beaks were the perfect factor to prove natural selection. With the publishing of the David Lack's essay, the scientific community and the general public finally agreed, or at least understood, natural selection and how the beaks of Darwin's finches proved the theory.

The first year of their research, the Grants focused on measuring every finch they caught, but they also wanted to research the types of food eaten by the different finches. They studied these aspects for the entire wet season. All the birds seemed to dine on similar diets during that first season. However, as they were leaving that first year, Peter...