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
Summerland Peninsula Bird Area. It is home to one of the largest Little Penguin ("Eudyptula minor") breeding colonies in Australia, the second largest breeding colony of Australian Fur Seals ("Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus") in the world, one of the largest breeding colonies of Greater crested terns ("Sterna bergii") in Victoria and an important breeding ground for Short-tailed shearwaters ("Puffinus tenuirostris"). Several plants regarded as rare or threatened in either Victoria or Australia have been recorded on the peninsula, including River Swamp Wallaby-grass ("Amphibromus fluitans") listed as vulnerable in Australia. The peninsula was significantly modified by agricultural, residential and recreational developments until the 1980s