BIRDS - NEW CALEDONIA L. Macmillan Page 83 Wailu River Area Saturday, 17th June, 1939. Weather: Extremely variable, generally close but windy, average temperature fully 10° Far. above that of previous day but sudden strange drops in temperature. Clouds 90 to 100%. Wind variable direction and force, mostly from the E to S quarter. Habitat: River flats with low dense scrub and open grass patches. Birds: This was an extremely strange morning for bird behaviour. All species except Pachycephala rufiventris, Lichmera, Artamus and Zosterops later. and to a less degree Lalage were not feeding. All species were extremely restless and shy. In a mornings shooting only five were shot and these were nearly all IMM. The reason for this was probably the large number of birds of prey about. Never before in the area have I seen so many about at the one time. At one time in the sky I could see 7 and there were numbers of Accipiter (2 species) perched in different places in trees around about. There did not seem to be any reason for this excessive number of birds of prey unless there was some species of migrant bird arriving on which they were preying. This on top of the sudden increase of Chalcities noted the previous day almost looks as if this may have been the migrant species, but strangely I saw none of this species about this morning nor did I hear any call. During an afternoon shoot conditions had not altered and hawks were just as plentiful as in the morning. Accipiter: Both species were present and at least 10 of each species must have been seen. Pandion: 3 and possibly more were seen. Haliastur: 4 of these were