— 
RECOLLET—RECTRICES 769 
apparel (with a few very rare exceptions) a further obvious 
characteristic. Otherwise the appearance of all these birds may 
be briefly described in the same words—head, breast and upper 
parts generally of a deep glossy black, and the lower parts and tip 
of the secondaries of a pure white, while the various changes of 
plumage dependent on age or season are alike in all. In habits 
the Razorbill closely agrees with the true Guillemots, laying its 
single egg (which is not, however, subject to the same amazing 
variety of coloration that is pre-eminently the Guillemot’s own) on 
the ledges of the cliffs to which it repairs in the breeding-season, 
but it is said, as a rule, when not breeding, to keep further out to 
sea. On the east side of the Atlantic the Razorbill has its stations 
on convenient parts of the coast from the North Cape to Britanny, 
besides several in the Baltic, while in winter it passes much further 
to the southward, and is sometimes numerous in the Bay of 
Gibraltar, occasionally entering the Mediterranean but apparently 
never extending to the eastward of Sicily or Malta. On the west 
side of the Atlantic it breeds from 70° N. lat. on the eastern 
shore of Baffin’s Bay to Cape Farewell, and again on the coast of 
America from Labrador and Newfoundland to the Bay of Fundy, 
while in winter it reaches Long Island. 
RECOLLET, the name given by the French-speaking popula- 
tion of Canada to Ampelis cedrorum (CEDAR-BIRD), from the 
resemblance of its occipital tuft to the hood worn by members of 
the Franciscan order of friars. 
RECTRICES, the quill-FEATHERS of the tail in Birds, so called 
from their action in directing FiicHtT. They grow in pairs ;! and 
what seems to have been their original arrangement is shewn by 
Archxopteryx (Fosstt Brrps, pp. 278, 279).2 Crowding upon a 
shorter basis seems to have produced the fan-shaped tail and 
PYGOSTYLE of most recent birds. Absence of this last implies an 
irregular arrangement of the tail-feathers, which in such cases, as 
among the Ratir# and TINAMOUS, can scarcely be called Rectrices ; 
but the reverse does not always occur, as witness those of the 
GREBES and PENGUINS. The normal number of Rectrices is 6 
pairs, but a few birds possess 10 or 11; several 9, 8 or 7; many 
only 5, and Crotophaga (ANI) only 4—the diminution being brought 
about by the suppression of the outer pair or pairs, as is indicated 
by their often dwindling dimensions, as may be seen in the 
WOODPECKERS and WRYNECKS when compared with the BARBETS 
1 Where an odd number is found, as not rarely happens in Swans and some 
other birds, it seems not unreasonable to suppose that through an injury the 
germ of one of them has perished, 
2 It was there incorrectly stated that each of the 20 vertebre bore a pair of 
rectrices, whereas only 12 of them are so furnished. 
49 
