Ornithologist and Zoogeographer

Abstract

At the AMNH, Mayr studied primarily the bird fauna of Oceania (Fig. 4.1), the island area bordered by and including New Guinea, Palau and Marianas Islands on the west and the Tuamotus and Marquesas Islands in the east. Based on anthropological research, Oceania is usually subdivided geographically into three regions: Melanesia (New Guinea eastward to Fiji and New Caledonia), Micronesia (Marianas, Caroline, Marshall and Gilbert Islands), and Polynesia (a triangle of many islands, including Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island). Mayr’s main interest was in the problems of geographic speciation, but he had never before encountered material documenting this process quite so graphically as these island birds. There was no widespread species that did not contain clear-cut cases of geographic speciation. Mayr followed a three-pronged research program in systematic and regional ornithology mainly founded on the collections of the Whitney South Sea Expedition:

(1) Revision and monographic treatment of the birds of Polynesia and Micronesia;

(2) Study and revision of the birds of Melanesia in preparation of a book on the birds of the Solomon Islands;

(3) Study and revision of all species and genera of New Guinea birds and preparation of a book on the avifauna of this island.