This analysis of the avifauna shows that Micronesia, with the exception of the Marshall Islands (and the Gilbert Islands), has but little affinity to Polynesia. It has greater affinity, from the zoogeographical standpoint, with the Papuan Region (Melanesia). TABLE 11. AVIFAUNAL COMPONENTS WHICH MAKE UP THE ENDEMIC RESIDENT LAND AND FRESH-WATER BIRD POPULATION OF MICRONESIA =================+=======+=============+===========+==========+========== | | Western | | | FAUNAL COMPONENT | Palau | and central | Eastern | Marianas | Marshalls | | Carolines | Carolines | | -----------------+-------+-------------+-----------+----------+---------- Polynesian | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 3 Melanesian | 11 | 14 | 16 | 12 | 0 Moluccan-Celebean| 6 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 0 Philippine | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 Palearctic | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 +-------+-------------+-----------+----------+---------- Totals | 27 | 23 | 29 | 28 | 4 -----------------+-------+-------------+-----------+----------+---------- SPECIATION Of the 104 native fresh-water birds and land birds which are resident in Micronesia, only 7 kinds or 6.5 percent remain undifferentiated from populations elsewhere. These birds are _Phalacrocorax melanoleucus_, _Pandion haliaetus_, _Demigretta sacra_, _Ixobrychus sinensis_, _Anas poecilorhyncha_, and possibly _Lonchura punctulata_ (may be an introduction by man). Another bird, _Gallinula chloropus_, a resident at Palau, may or may not be distinct from the gallinule of Malaysia, _G. c. orientalis_. Of the 104 resident birds, 97 kinds or 93.5 percent have become differentiated and can be separated taxonomically from populations elsewhere. Of the kinds of birds which are found only in Micronesia, there are 5 endemic genera (16 percent), 31 endemic species (32 percent) and 76 endemic subspecies (75 percent). If we consider the avifauna of Micronesia as a single element, the endemism is high as compared with that on larger and less isolated islands. For example, Mayr (1944a:174) found 137 resident birds on Timor including 22 endemic species (16 percent) and 67 endemic subspecies (47.5 percent). Stresemann (1939b:313) found 220 species including 84 endemic species (38.2 percent) on Celebes. Mayr (1944a:174) also writes that on Java, of 337 breeding species, 16 (4.8 percent) are endemic, and on New Caledonia, of 68 species 19 (27.9 percent) are endemic. Speciation in Micronesia has not progressed much farther than that at New Caledonia and not so far as at Celebes, but subspeciation has progressed considerably more than at the island of Timor. The avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands, as recorded by Bryan and Greenway (1944), has 73