This presents a comprehensive, detailed study of speciation for all resident land and freshwater bird species of Northern Melanesia. The book provides by far the most comprehensive study yet available of a rich fauna, composed of the 195 breeding land and fresh-water bird species of the Bismarck and Solomon Archipelagoes east of New Guinea.

For students of speciation, Northern Melanesian birds now constitute a model system against which other biotas can be compared.
For population biologists interested in other problems besides speciation, this rich database can now be mined for insights.

Contents
1. Birds—Papua New
Part I. Northern Melanesia's Physical and Biological Environment
1. Geology and Geological History
2. Climate
3. Habitats and Vegetation
4. Terrestrial Vertebrates Other Than Birds
Part II. Human History and Impacts
5. Human History
6. Ornithological Exploration of Northern Melanesia
7. Exterminations of Bird Populations
Part III. The Northern Melanesian Avifauna
8. Family Composition
9. Determinants of Island Species Number
10. Level of Endemism, Habitat Preference, and Abundance of Each Species
11. Over water Dispersal Ability of Each Species
12. Distributional Ecology
Part IV. Colonization Routes
13. Proximate Origins of Northern Melanesian Populations
14. Upstream Colonization and Faunal Dominance
15. Ultimate Origins of Northern Melanesian Populations
Part V. Taxonomic Analysis: Differences Among Species
16. The Problem of Speciation
17. Stages of Geographic Speciation Among the Birds of Northern Melanesia
18. Absence of Geographic Variation
19. Geographic Variation: Subspecies
20. Geographic Variation: Megasubspecies
21. Geographic Variation: Allospecies
22. Completed Speciation
23. Hybridization
24. Endemic Species and Genera
Part VI. Geographic Analysis: Differences Among Islands
25. Endemism Index
26. Pairwise Differentiation Index
27. Pairwise Nonsharing Indices: Differences in Island Species Compositions
28. The Establishment of Geographic Isolates
29. Interarchipelagal Barriers
30. Barriers Within the Bismarcks
31. Barriers Within the Solomons
32. Speciation on Fragmented Solomon Islands
33. Differential Extinction and Species Occurrences on Fragmented Pleistocene Islands
Part VII. Synthesis, Conclusions, and Prospects
34. Conclusions about Speciation
35. Species Differences, Taxon Cycles, and the Evolution of Dispersal
36. Promising Directions for Future Research
Maps
Appendices
References
Index

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