The first four chapters of "The Beak of the Finch" are basically about the .
Grants discoveries on the Galapagos Islands as opposed to Darwin's. In the first chapter the project itself is described and a brief history is given on the Grants. The project takes place on Daphne Major, which is an island located at the center of the Galapagos Archipelago. The Grants have been on the island for over two decades in which time they have observed twenty generations of finches. At the time that the book was written the Grants along with their children and a team of observers were examining four hundred finches. Surprisingly are able to distinguish all four hundred of them and were also able to that when there were over one thousand of them. One thousand is the approximately the average number of finches present on the island, but that year there had been a serious shortage of water. In 1,320 days there was only five millimeters of rain. As a result of this water shortage of water many of the finches had died.
There are thirteen species of finches living in the Galapagos. They seem very similar but are actually very different. There is the cactus finch whose entire life is revolves around a cactus. This bird lives in the cactus. Eats from the cactus and even mates in the cactus. Another species of finch is the vampire finch, which eats its own dead. There is also a species that eat green leaves, something that birds do not usually do. In the first four chapters it is also apparent that there is a difference in the results of the data gathered by the Grants and Darwin's theories. Though Darwin did visit the Galapagos he only stayed a couple days which is nothing compared to the Grants" twenty years. In the short time that he did spend there Darwin gathered, from his observation of the finches, that evolutions was a slow change and it would be hundreds of years before any change could be apparent.