RECOLLETRECTRICES 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 FLIGHT. They grow in pairs ; 1 and 

 what seems to have been their original arrangement is shewn by 

 Ardueopteryx (FossiL BIRDS, 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 RATIT^E 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 vertebrae bore a pair of 

 rectrices, whereas only 12 of them are so furnished. 



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