Tufted puffin Latin "fratercula", friar, a reference to the black and white plumage which resembles monastic robes. The specific name "cirrhata" is Latin for "curly-headed", from "cirrus", a curl of hair. The vernacular name "puffin" – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated species, the Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"), formerly known as the "Manks puffin". It is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English "pophyn" or "poffin") used for the cured carcasses. The Atlantic puffin acquired the name at a much later stage, possibly because of its similar nesting habits,
Chagos Archipelago fuscata"), brown and lesser noddies ("Anous stolidus" and "Anous tenuirostris") wedge-tailed shearwaters ("Puffinus pacificus") and red-footed boobies ("Sula sula"). Land bird fauna is poor and consists of introduced species and recent natural colonisers. Red fody had been introduced and now widespread. Environments of Chagos Archipelago provides rich biodiversity and support varieties of cetacean species within the vicinity, such as three populations of blue whales and toothed whales (sperm, pilot, orca, pseudo-orca, risso's and other dolphins such as spinners, and so on). Dugongs, being locally extinct today, once thrived in the archipelago and the Sea Cow Island was named after the