BIRDS - NEW CALEDONIA L. Macmillan Page 103 TAO AREA COASTAL N.W. MOUNTAINS (MT. PANIE). Week of the 25th to 29th, July 1939. Observations made during ascent of Mt. Panie while natives were cutting track. It is noticable that there is a zone of dense bird life immediately above the open Noulie forest area at about 4 to 6 hundred ft. a.s.l. From here up to about 2 thousand feet there does not appear to be any appreciable difference in the amount of bird life. All species one would expect to be present in the forest seem to be fairly represented. It was somewhat difficult to tell exactly just how dense is the bird life of the area as while natives are cutting a track the birds are naturally frightened and keep at some distance, thus all observations here after in this week of watching are subject to drastic alteration, or may be entirely wrong when subsequent observations of a more normal nature are made. The forest in these areas is more or less a normal mountain forest with the taller trees which run up to about 40 or 50 ft. in height being found in the lower levels and slowly becoming shorter with the increase of altitude. At about 2000 ft. the trees are thinner and very few are more than 25 ft. in height, on the ridges at least though they are taller in the valleys. From 2 to 3 thousand feet there appears to be little or no bird life except for Zosterops flav and Myzomela. and a few pigeons in the valleys. The bush here is mostly in the form of scattered trees about 15 to 20 ft. apart with a fern and pandanus and low shrubs very densely growing in between. From this level up the bird life appears to increase in numbers and though the underbrush becomes very much less dense the trees appear to get slightly taller, though very little. Flowering trees and shrubs appear to become more plentiful though the upper leaf