Puffinus

Puffinus is a genus of seabirds in the order Procellariiformes. It comprises about 20 small to medium-sized shearwaters. Two other shearwater genera are named: Calonectris, which comprises three or four large shearwaters, and Ardenna with another seven species (formerly often included within Puffinus). Puffinus is a New Latin loanword based on the English 'puffin'. The original Latin term for shearwaters was usually the catchall name for sea-birds, mergus. 'Puffin' and its variants, such as poffin, pophyn and puffing, referred to the cured carcass of the fat nestling of the shearwater, a former delicacy. The original usage dates from at least 1337, but from as early as 1678 the term gradually came to be used for another, unrelated, seabird, the Atlantic puffin, an auk. The current English name was first recorded in 1835 and refers to the former nesting of this species on the Isle of Man.