Browsing by Author "Diamond, Jared M."
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Item Birds of Karkar and Bagabag islands, New Guinea. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 164, article 4(New York : American Museum of Natural History, 1979) Diamond, Jared M.; Lecroy, Mary."We analyze the avifaunas of Karkar and Bagabag, two Quaternary volcanic islands off the northeast coast of New Guinea. Our discussion is based on collections and observations of birds, and incidental collections of mammals, made on these islands in 1969. The first part of our discussion considers general features of interest in the avifaunas, and the second part consists of individual species accounts. Most bats and nonvolant mammals of Karkar and Bagabag occur in the adjacent New Guinea lowlands and on other nearby islands. However, the bat Pteropus tonganus is otherwise absent from the New Guinea and Bismarck regions, though widespread on more remote Pacific archipelagoes from the New Hebrides eastward. As judged by distributions and subspecific affinities, most bird species have been derived from New Guinea, except for seven species (including four small-island specialists or 'supertramps') derived from the Bismarck Archipelago. There are no endemic forms. Most of the bird species are superior overwater colonists shared with other nearby islands. Altitudinal ranges are plotted for all resident species of Karkar. Species number decreases regularly with altitude. Altitudinal limits of different species show little tendency to coincide: i.e., there is little altitudinal zonation of the avifauna. Eight species on Karkar are confined to the mountains. Comparison of the resident avifauna of Karkar in 1969 with that determined by Meek's collectors in 1914 yields a minimum turnover rate of 0.34 percent of Karkar's bird populations turning over (immigrating or going extinct) per year. Karkar and Bagabag support only a fraction of the bird species found in similar habitats on New Guinea. Total population densities on Karkar and Bagabag are considerably below those on New Guinea. Due to this reduction in interspecific competition, half of the species on Karkar undergo niche shifts--i.e., occupy broader altitudinal, habitat, or vertical ranges or live at higher densities than do the source populations on New Guinea. Study of primary molt and gonad condition of collected specimens and nest records permit tentative conclusions about reproductive cycles for most species. Few species breed in the dry season except for frugivores. Some species, especially wide-ranging colonizers, increase their reproductive potential by molt-breeding overlap, adventitious breeding, or both. Our accounts of individual species report measurements and weights of collected specimens, color of soft parts, local names, breeding and molt data, stomach contents, taxonomic conclusions, and voice and other field observations"--P. 471.Item New subspecies and records of birds from the Karimui Basin, New Guinea. American Museum novitates ; no. 2284(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1967) Diamond, Jared M.Item Preliminary results of an ornithological exploration of the North Coastal Range, New Guinea. American Museum novitates ; no. 2362(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1969) Diamond, Jared M.Item Rollo Beck's collections of birds in northeast New Guinea. (American Museum novitates, no. 3873)(American Museum of Natural History., 2017-02-15) Lecroy, Mary.; Diamond, Jared M.In 1928-1929 Rollo Beck discovered in New Guinea a spectacular new species of bowerbird, Sericulus bakeri, which according to his specimen labels he collected near the previously well-studied lowland town and former colonial capital of Madang. That seemed so implausible that suspicions arose that Beck had intentionally falsified the locality--especially when it eventually turned out that the new bowerbird is instead confined to the nearby Adelbert Mountains. Beck made this discovery in the course of amassing large collections in northeast New Guinea that, in fact, have never been published as a whole, although Ernst Mayr (1941) in his List of New Guinea Birds included some of Beck's records. Much doubt has remained about Beck's collecting localities. Hence we have now reconstructed Beck's itinerary on the basis of his field diary and specimen register; the letter by his wife who accompanied him; a spreadsheet of his cataloged specimens in the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH); and correspondence, records, and photographs archived at the AMNH. We show that Beck collected at 10 sites grouped into three areas: the foothills of the Adelbert Mountains and adjacent lowlands, the westernmost foothills of the Huon Peninsula, and the Cromwell Mountains in the east of the Huon Peninsula. We assemble a table listing all species that Beck collected at each of the 10 sites. For each site, we discuss the upland species, open-country species, and other groups of species collected there. Those results illuminate the upland avifaunas of the Adelbert Mountains and the Huon Peninsula, range borders in Northeast New Guinea, and a possible Massenerhebung effect in the Cromwell Mountains. It is clear that Beck's labeling of his Sericulus bakeri specimens as collected at Madang was not done with intent to mislead, but is instead readily understandable from Beck's previous collecting experiences and his preparation for his New Guinea trip.Item Zoogeography of mammals from islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea. American Museum novitates ; no. 2690(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1979) Koopman, Karl F.; Diamond, Jared M."The mammal faunas of seven islands lying off the northeast coast of New Guinea and adjacent to the Bismarck Archipelago have been studied. While a number of characteristic New Guinea elements are lacking, the faunas show a mixture of New Guinea and New Britain (Bismarck) elements. An attempt is made to explain the presence or absence of various Megachiroptera on these and other islands in the Bismarck area in terms of 'incidence functions,' but it is evident that the data are inadequate to go very far in this direction"--P. [1].