This was submitted as a Ph.D. Thesis to the University of Wisconsin for a doctorate in zoology. 314 pages. The edges are bumped, there's an ownership stamp on the front end papar and the back cover is lightly creased, else immaculate. Facsimile edition printed on acid free paper. 'Small isolated patches of forest (.1 - 7 ha) in eastern New South Wales and southern Wisconsin were surveyed regularly for at least one calendar year between 1977 and 1981. In both regions forests and woodland have been cleared extensively during the past century. Bird distributions among remnant "forest islands" were compared with those among equivalent "control" plots within large nearby forests. This analysis contrasts patterns of species richness, species composition, relative species abudance and local movements. Despite considerable differences in taxonomic relationships, migratory behavior and environmental conditions, forest avifaunas in New South Wales and Wisconsin seem to have responded in similar ways to habitat fragmentation. (1) Area was far and away the best predictor of species richness. Even though vegetation and other environmental features were relatively similar among sites, slopes of the species-area curves were unusually high for both islands and control plots. (2) Species common in the islands also tended to be common in large nearby forests, but in both study areas bird communities in small forest islands were non-random samples from the regional forest avifauna. (3) Insular bird assemblages generally were more predictable over space and time than were local assemblages within the large continuous forests. Although transients or regular visitors were common in the forest islands, a greater diversity of non-resident species visited control plots of the same area. Differences between species assemblages of insular and control sites were more pronounced in Wisconsin than in New South Wales. In the former, species richness was much lower in forest islands relative to the control plots, and isolation was correlated with a significant reduction in species richness (unlike in New South Wales). I propose that habitat fragmentation in both regions has disrupted the spatial and temporal dynamics of forest bird communities. This favors some species over others and has implications for the conservation of birds in disturbed landscapes. The long-term effects of forest fragmentation in New South Wales may not yet be realized, because relatively large areas of virgin forest still remain near existing habitat islands.' (Trove)