BIRDS - NEW CALEDONIA L. Macmillan Page 85 Wailu River Valley Monday, 19th June, 1939. Weather: Dull cloudy and showers of rain, cloud fog in valley at a few feet above sea level. Later fine but quickly clouding over and more rain threatning. Clouds from 40 to 100%. Wind light Southerly. Habitat: River flats subject to flooding. Open grass patches with low scrub and bush. Birds: This morning bird behaviour was quite normal and in spite of the showers the birds were feeding very actively. Porzana tabuenisis: One shot in a low dense bush fully two feet from the ground. Not seen but shot by call only. It was calling within 30 yds. of the same spot two days before. The call is entirely different to that of this species in both the New Hebrides and Loyalty Is. This specimen may have been an imm. Corvus: This species ventured out across the grass flats today to feed on the caterpillars but it was very cowardly and nervous and would dive squaking for cover if anything, even Notophyx, passed overhead. Nycticorax: A brown bird which may have been this was glimpsed flying low across the river between two patches of mangrove. Pandion: One again seen near the poultry yard. Hypotaenidia: The grass flats were alive with this species this morning and three were shot but lost. Many were heard calling or seen at a distance. They may have been feeding on the caterpillar hatch. Trichoglossus: Numbers seen high in flight overhead. Some were feeding in coconuts across the river. They were quieter this morning, not so restless or so nervous. Megalurulus: Behaviour and calls were normal but they had moved out from the wetter parts of their usual habitat.