Display at the World Museum Liverpool to mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin

Feb 12 2009 by Adrian Short, Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

A BIRD specimen collected by Charles Darwin on the legendary voyage of the Beagle is displayed at the World Museum Liverpool to mark the 200th birthday of the great naturalist.

Darwin collected the ovenbird in 1834 in Wolsey Sound in the Straights of Magellan at the tip of South America.

The specimen has been in the museum’s renowned collections since 1896.

Darwin wrote on the label that the stomach was full of shellfish and the bird was very common.

They are called ovenbirds because they build nests out of hard mud, resembling round Dutch ovens.

When the Beagle returned to Britain in 1836 after the epic five-year voyage around the world, 27-year-old Darwin became a celebrity.

He’d collected thousands of specimens of creatures and fossils.

His researches led him to his monumental and controversial theory of natural selection, which was published as On the Origin of Species in 1859.

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, at Shrewsbury.

To mark the milestone, Paul Netterfield premiers his performance as the older Darwin explaining his ground-breaking theory.

He will greet visitors to the museum at various times in the day and talk about Darwin’s theories and the voyage of the Beagle.