Puffin are closely related, together composing the subfamily Fraterculini. The scientific name "Fratercula" is derived from Latin and means "little brother", a reference to the black and white plumage, which resembles monastic robes. The English name "puffin" – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"), formerly known as the "Manks puffin". Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English "pophyn" or "poffin") for the cured carcasses of nestling Manx shearwaters. The oldest alcid fossil is "Hydrotherikornis" from Oregon dating to the Late Eocene while
Tropical shearwater subspecies thought to number 3,000–5,000 pairs on Réunion and fewer than 100 individuals on Europa (reviewed by Brooke 2004), though it is thought there are many more breeding colonies on other islands in the Pacific. The population seems to be stable. Tropical shearwater The tropical shearwater ("Puffinus bailloni") is a seabird in the family Procellariidae formerly considered conspecific with Audubon's shearwater ("Puffinus lherminieri"). There are five listed subspecies of the tropical shearwater: The tropical shearwater is found in the tropical parts of the western Indian Ocean from east Africa to southern India and in similar regions of the Pacific from