Coffee!! Darwin resurrects birds

From the you-couldn't-make-it-up department, the holy saint Charles Of Darwin is being credited with saving from extinction a species of mockingbird which went extinct 100 years ago.

But within 50 years of the great naturalist's voyage on HMS Beagle, the tame little birds had been wiped out on their native island because of the dogs and rats introduced by Darwin himself.
However specimens remained at the Natural History Museum in London and with the California Academy of Sciences. Now thanks to DNA samples taken from the stuffed birds naturalists have been able to find mockingbirds with a similar genetic make up to return to Floreana island for the first time in 120 years.

Notice it was Darwin himself who wiped the birds out in the first place. Hardly the behaviour of any "great naturalist", but don't let that get in the way of the hero worship.

It's the first time this science journalist has seen Darwin credited with bringing something back from the dead. What's next - walking on water?