Atlantic puffin Medieval Latin "fratercula", friar, a reference to the black and white plumage which resembles monastic robes. The specific name "arctica" refers to the northerly distribution of the bird, being derived from the Greek ἄρκτος ("arktos"), the bear, referring to the northerly constellation, the Great Bear. 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 Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"), which in 1652 was known as the "Manks puffin". It is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English "pophyn" or "poffin") used for the cured carcasses.
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,