Looks as if I missed an opportunity to meet Charles Darwin in the flesh this week. Well, nearly:
Half a mile from where I work, Paul Nettlefield was playing the part of my hero at the World Museum, Liverpool. And get this, for a prop, he had a 100% genuine specimen from the Beagle voyage: an ovenbird [Cinclodes patagonica] which Darwin collected in Wolsey Sound in the Straits of Magellan in 1834. It still bears the label Darwin tied to it.
Note to self: must get down to the museum one lunchtime. There's a Darwin display!