Manx shearwater Morten Thrane Brünnich as "Procellaria puffinus" in 1764. The current scientific name "Puffinus" derives from "puffin" and its variants, such as poffin, pophyn and puffing, which referred to the cured carcass of the fat nestling of the shearwater, a former delicacy. The original usage dates from at least 1337, but from as early as 1678 the term gradually came to be used for another seabird, the Atlantic puffin. The current English name was first recorded in 1835 and refers to the former nesting of this species on the Isle of Man. The Manx shearwater is with a wingspan and weighs
Great shearwater can be seen in large numbers from ships or appropriate headlands. They have a piercing "eeyah" cry usually given when resting in groups on the water. Great shearwater The great shearwater ("Ardenna gravis"; formerly "Puffinus gravis") is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. "Ardenna" was first used to refer to a seabird by Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603, and "gravis" is Latin for "heavy". The great shearwater's relationships are unclear. It belongs in the group of large species that have been separated as genus "Ardenna" (Penhallurick & Wink 2004); within these, it might be allied with the