Manx shearwater Manx shearwater The Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus") is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: "Manx shearwaters" were called "Manks puffins" in the 17th century. Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English "pophyn") for the cured carcasses of nestling shearwaters. The Atlantic puffin acquired the name much later, possibly because of its similar nesting habits. The shearwaters form part of the family Procellariidae, a widespread group containing nearly 100 species of medium to large seabirds. They have long, narrow wings and the characteristic “tubenose”. The large genus "Puffinus" includes
Audubon's shearwater homogeneous north-western Indian Ocean range, but not in the ecologically more diverse and by far larger Pacific range of "dichrous". These unresolved problems notwithstanding, this clade – possibly including the preceding one – has been proposed to constitute a separate species, the tropical shearwater or Baillon's shearwater, "Puffinus bailloni". These taxa could not be included in the most recent studies due to lack of material. The case of "gunax" seems fairly straightforward – as certainly as this can possibly be said in the absence of new data, it belongs to the "bailloni" clade either as a distinct subspecies, or, more