BIRDS - NEW CALEDONIA L. Macmillan Page 56 Wailu Area: River Valley and thousand foot mountains up to 4 or 5 miles inland. Monday, 15th May, 1939. Weather: Fine, dull, overcast, morning; sun & cloud in afternoon. Light SE breeze, clouds, 100-80%. Habitat: To get the country in the area properly orientated and see the types of vegetation in the area I did a full ten miles across the hills. The most striking feature of the country is the irregularity of the types of habitat. The kinds of habitat fall under only three main heads and a subhead. Heathlands: varying in thickness and extent, but generally speaking being more or less well up on the sides and tops of the hills. Valley scrubs. These occur irregularly far up in pockets on the hill sides are sometimes only an acre or so in extent and sometimes fairly extensive. Valley bottoms scrub: These are all along the river valley bottoms or on flats where native reservations exist, generally when the land is owned by a white the land is cleared or semi-cleared for cattle pastures. In this type of area occurs the subhead of artificial habitat in the areas planted under coffee where shade trees over coffee form a fairly dense form of growth much frequented by birds, especially insectiverous birds. Native gardens occur in this area also but as most of the cultivation is taru., little yam being grown, this comes into almost the next sub-type or Swamp areas. which are not really swamps but really more wet river flats. The heathlands carry the least bird life. The swampy areas and coffee cultivations the most. There does not seem to be any real line of demarcation in what areas the different birds frequent except that certain