128 CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



831. Puffiims kuhli (Boie) Bp. B . c 596. R 708. 



Cinereous Shearwater. [See Addenda, No. 888. 



832. Puffinus major Faber. B 647. c 597. R 709. 



Greater Shearwater. 



833. Puffinus creatopus Coop. B . c 598. R 710. 



Flesh-footed Shearwater. 



834. Puffinus anglorum Temm. B 649. c 599. R 711. 



Manks Shearwater. 



835. Puffinus obscurus (Gm.) V. B 650. c eoo. R 712. 



Dusky Shearwater. 



836. Puffinus opisthomelas Coues. B . ceoi. R713. 



Black-vented Shearwater. 



837. Puffinus fuliginosus A. Strickl. B 648. c 602. R 714. 



Sooty Shearwater. 



831. Puf -fin-us kuhl'-i. Two very different kinds of birds early received the name of puffein 



or puffin: one of these, the Fratercula arctica, has retained it in English, in place of the 

 old English coulterneb ("ploughshare-nose"), which soon gave way; the French now 

 call it macareux. The other, namely, the shearwater, soon lost the name of puffin; but 

 meanwhile puffin had been taken into the books, and, at the pen of those who wrote 

 their treatises in Latin, became puffinus or puphinus; and this was subsequently fixed 

 as a generic term for the Shearwater Petrels. We do not know the exact meaning of the 

 word, but suppose it has something to do with puff, as suggested by the stout, " puffy " 

 shape of the bodies of the Auks, as if puffed up. The species is dedicated to Dr. Hein- 

 rich Kuhl, whose early death left much promise unfulfilled. 



832. P. ma'-jor. Lat. major, greater, comparative degree of magnus, great. 



A 



833. P. cre-at'-6-pus. Gr. npeas, genitive npearos, flesh, and TTOVS, foot ; in allusion to the 



color of the feet. We see the same stem in the anatomical term pan-creas, " all-flesh." 



834. P. an-gl5'-rum. " Puffinus ane/lorum " is a curiosity. It simply says in Latin " the puffin 



of the English," just as one might cite Puffinus jonstoni, the puffin of Jonston's treatise. 

 Willughby, edited in Latin in 1676, called it "Puffinus Anglorum," meaning only that it 

 was the bird " called puffin in English " ; and Temminck, in 1820, not unhappily made 

 the phrase generic and specific as the technical name of the bird. " AJanks " or " Manx " 

 is the name of the people and of their language, of the Isle of Man ; so " manx shear- 

 water "is as if we were to say "the puffin of the Isle of Man." " Shearwater " is 

 defined by early ornithologists as "avis aquce super/idem radens," the bird that grazes, 

 skims, shaves, shears over the surface of the water ; rado, I shave, scrape ; the stem is 

 seen in erase, razor, &c. See above, Puffinus, No. 831. 



835. P. 6b-scu'-rus. Lat. obscurus, dark-colored. 



NOTE. There is doubt that the small dark shearwater of our South Atlantic coast 

 is the P. obscurus of Gmelin, and Finsch has lately proposed to call it P. auduboni. But 

 until we have more light on this obscure group, we prefer not to disestablish several well- 

 settled names in this genus. See Ridg., Pr. Nat. Mus., ii, 1880, p. 12. 



836. P. 5-pis-th5'-m6-las. Gr. oniffOe, backward, and /xeAos, black ; a Greek way of saying 



black behind. 



NOTE. This is supposed by some to be Puffinus gavia (Forst.). 



837. P. fu-li-gin-o'-stts. See Canace, No. 659. 



