Puffinus 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
Hutton's shearwater a white underbelly and brown collar, dark borders to the underwing, dark grey bill, and pinkish dark-webbed feet; it can be distinguished from fluttering shearwater by its dark grey "armpits". At a breeding colony it has a loud cackling call. Hutton's shearwater feeds in the open ocean largely on small fish and krill, diving up to 20 m. "Puffinus huttoni" have long bills, which are adapted to catch prey more or less underwater by plunging from a few meters above the surface or by paddling slowly forwards searching with their head submerged, then diving using partly opened wings for propulsion.