Description of a new taxon brookei of Levaillant's Cisticola Cisticola tinniens from the Western Cape, South Africa

All Levaillant's Cisticolas south of the Limpopo River art currently consid ered to be of the nominate race. Atlas data indicate a distinct discontinui ty in the distribution, separating birds in the winter rainfall region of t he Western Cape from those in the summer rainfall zone of South Africa. Wes tern Cape birds breed and moult earlier. are smaller in wing and tail lengt h, but heavier in weight, and lack the distinctive summer plumage of a pale rufous. unstreaked crown in nominate tinniens. Both taxa undergo a partial body moult in spring, but in Western Cape birds this is not a pre- but a p eri-breeding, moult during which they develop a new nonbreeding plumage. Ev idence for early territorial settlement and pairing in juvenile plumage, wh ich is similar to the nonbreeding plumage. was obtained. indicating that th e summer plumage may not be a key factor in species recognition. Western Ca pe birds are described as, a new subspecies brookei. A sample of museum spe cimens contained too many apparently incorrectly sexed birds to reveal sexu al bimodality in biometry, and they indicated differences in biometry betwe en taxa in the opposite direction of that found in larger samples of live b irds.