. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Birds. Frangoise Dowsett-Lemaire et al. 306 Bull. 2005 125(4) Field investigations We came across C. r. ruficeps in northern Cameroon: the species is common in low thorn scrub of the Sahel zone between Maroua, Mora and Waza. Several birds observed in the dry season on 20 March 1997 (FDL & RJD) were in non-breeding dress (with heavily streaked back) but already in full song. In March 1999 FDL & RJD spent a month in Benoue and Faro National Parks (NP), south of Garoua, and saw many Dorst's Cisticolas at several localities: at Buffle
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Birds. Frangoise Dowsett-Lemaire et al. 306 Bull. 2005 125(4) Field investigations We came across C. r. ruficeps in northern Cameroon: the species is common in low thorn scrub of the Sahel zone between Maroua, Mora and Waza. Several birds observed in the dry season on 20 March 1997 (FDL & RJD) were in non-breeding dress (with heavily streaked back) but already in full song. In March 1999 FDL & RJD spent a month in Benoue and Faro National Parks (NP), south of Garoua, and saw many Dorst's Cisticolas at several localities: at Buffle Noir, Sakje, Grand Capitaine (Benoue NP), Camp des Hippos and the Faro/Deo confluence (Faro NP). Birds had a rufous cap, a pale eyebrow, a brown- grey, mostly plain back, reddish wings and buffy flanks. They were often associated with the larger Singing Cisticola C. cantans and smaller Short-winged Cisticola C. brachypterus. There was little singing before 13 March when an unusually heavy and early storm provoked a burst of vocal activity in all cisticolas throughout the area for some ten days. The dry metallic trills characteristic of Dorst's Cisticola were heard almost daily on 14-24 March and were tape-recorded at Sakje on the 14th. Playback of Chappuis's tapes of Dorst's Cisticola {in Chappuis 1974) provoked strong reactions in the bird tape-recorded. The birds were usually found feeding in dry grass, often unburnt patches, in the understorey of open scrubby or low-canopy woodland dominated by medium-sized trees such as Burkea africana, Faurea speciosa, Lophira lanceolata and Protea madiensis. In February 2002 FDL & RJD encountered several Dorst's Cisticolas in south- west Mali (in the Monts Mandingues at Tambale and Tombane, in the Haut Bafing at Soukoutali and at the Bafing-Bale confluence, in the Baoule Sud area near Ntjila and near Madina Diassa) as well as just inside Guinea on the Bale. The habitat was similar to that in Cameroon, grassy understorey of fairly
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