Abstract
Abstract Until now, we have assumed that Northern Melanesia is a zoogeographic region distinct from the New Guinea region to the west and from the Santa Cruz and New Hebrides archipelagoes to the east. We have also assumed that the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Archipelago constitute distinct zoogeographic subregions of Northern Melanesia. In the present chapter we evaluate the barriers that divide these archipelagoes and that justify these zoogeographic definitions. We begin by comparing the Northern Melanesian avifauna as a whole with the avifauna of the adjacent part of New Guinea, Northeast New Guinea. We already compared the family compositions of these two avifaunas in chapter 8. The gap separating Northeast New Guinea from Northern Melanesia is about 48 km to the nearest Bismarck islands (Umboi and Long) and 636 km to the nearest Solomon island (Bougainville).
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