Origin, Chapter 12

This chapter includes observations Darwin made on the Beagle voyage to the Galapagos islands off the coast of South America. The plants and animals of each island bore their own distinctive traits evolved since the organisms had been isolated from other populations, but the country of their common origin was still evident. Darwin wrote:

There are twenty-six land birds, and twenty-five of those are ranked...as distinct species, supposed to have been created here; yet the close affinity of most of these birds to American species in every character, in their habits, gestures, and tones of voice, was manifest. So it is with the other animals, and with nearly all the plants… The naturalist, looking at the inhabitants of these volcanic islands in the Pacific, distant several hundred miles from the continent, yet feels that he is standing on American land.

The birds commonly known as "Darwin's finches" aren't really "his" finches. He collected them, but a prominent ornithologist by the name of John Gould identified them.

Photo credit: http://blog.calgarypubliclibrary.com/blogs/eco_action/darwin%27s%20finches.jpg