Puffin are closely related, together composing the subfamily Fraterculini. The scientific name "Fratercula" is derived from Latin and means "little brother", a reference to the black and white plumage, which resembles monastic robes. The English name "puffin" – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"), formerly known as the "Manks puffin". Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English "pophyn" or "poffin") for the cured carcasses of nestling Manx shearwaters. The oldest alcid fossil is "Hydrotherikornis" from Oregon dating to the Late Eocene while
Persian shearwater off Oman and Socotra, Yemen, while "P. p. temptator" has been estimated to number fewer than 500 pairs on Moheli Island in the Comoros (reviewed by Brooke 2004). It is thought likely that more breeding colonies lie undiscovered elsewhere in the northern Indian Ocean (Onley and Scofield 2007), thus the total population probably includes more than 10,000 mature individuals. The population trend is believed to be downwards. Persian shearwater The Persian shearwater ("Puffinus persicus") is a seabird in the family Procellariidae formerly lumped in with Audubon's shearwater ("Puffinus lherminieri"). There are two listed subspecies of the Persian shearwater: After breeding,