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Why is the Puffin named... (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jebir
- Start date
KnockerNorton
Well-known member
The story goes that the type specimen for puffins were actually chicks that were pulled out of burrows, preserved, and labelled Puffinus puffinus. Except they weren't puffins, they were Manx Shearwaters. So they had to come up with another name for puffins.
KnockerNorton
Well-known member
I don't know off the top of my head, but a dig on the web would probably throw it up.
Puffins aren't that characteristic when they're chicks. An understandable mistake at the time, I'd have thought.
Puffins aren't that characteristic when they're chicks. An understandable mistake at the time, I'd have thought.
Allen S. Moore
Well-known member
Offord said:
Xenospiza
Distracted
These mistakes have happened more often, but one of my favourites involves the japanese robins.
Japanese Robin and Ryukyu Robin are called Komadori and Akahige in japanese, but their scientific names are mixed up: Erithacus akahige and E. komadori.
Curiously, Akahige means "red beard": true for the Japanese Robin, but not for the Ryukyu Robin, so the erroneous scientific name makes more sense!
Japanese Robin and Ryukyu Robin are called Komadori and Akahige in japanese, but their scientific names are mixed up: Erithacus akahige and E. komadori.
Curiously, Akahige means "red beard": true for the Japanese Robin, but not for the Ryukyu Robin, so the erroneous scientific name makes more sense!
Brian Stone
A Stone chatting
Sorry to dredge up such an old thread but I've been looking at this question for another reason and the true picture isn't quite clear from the posts above.
What we now call Manx Shearwater was called a Puffin and no doubt was known as such at the time the type specimen was named Puffinus puffinus (simply latinising its common name of the time).
The word puffin goes back to Middle English or earlier (Anglo-latin) and refers to the 'puffiness' of the fat Manx Shearwater nestlings. However it seems there is little doubt that the name applied to the adults as well as the young.
It is later confusion that resulted in Fratercula (is Lunda now defunct?) species being called Puffins. If anyone knows what Puffins were known as at the time shearwaters were called puffins I'd be interested to learn.
Fratercula means 'little brother', probably refering to the monk-like appearance of the little fellas.
What we now call Manx Shearwater was called a Puffin and no doubt was known as such at the time the type specimen was named Puffinus puffinus (simply latinising its common name of the time).
The word puffin goes back to Middle English or earlier (Anglo-latin) and refers to the 'puffiness' of the fat Manx Shearwater nestlings. However it seems there is little doubt that the name applied to the adults as well as the young.
It is later confusion that resulted in Fratercula (is Lunda now defunct?) species being called Puffins. If anyone knows what Puffins were known as at the time shearwaters were called puffins I'd be interested to learn.
Fratercula means 'little brother', probably refering to the monk-like appearance of the little fellas.
KnockerNorton
Well-known member
brianhstone said:
That's interesting, Brian. I wasn't sure if my story was true or not, I think I saw it on telly once.
Perhaps 'puffin' was a general term for all fat chicks pulle dout of burrows, both manxies and puffins? I wouldn't be surprised if the Middle English speakers who used the word didn't discriminate between the two, as they look a bit similar and they weren't exactly bothered by the taxonomy.
Brings to mind another pub quiz fact, in that Graet Auk were ogininally called Penguins, and gave the name to the southern hemisphere species from the visual similarity. But this also indicates that those who were using such seabirds as food did tend to lump things together based on general appearance.
Brian Stone
A Stone chatting
Poecile said:
I'd considered that but the etymology specifically states that puffin referred to shearwaters so I wondered if there was a separate term in use at the time for the bright-billed adult puffin, which must have been sufficiently dinstinctive to warrant some attention. Perhaps you are right and the term puffin meant any edible fat chick of a seabird yanked from a burrow (of which the vast majority were shearwaters?) and there was no call for a word to describe the different adults buzzing about.
Allen S. Moore
Well-known member
Puffins
You go to intellectual pub quizes, Poecile!
I looked up "puffin" in the History of Manx Ornithology section in the definitive book on Manx Ornithology, "Birds of the Isle of Man" by J.P.Cullen and P.P.Jennings. It says that "William Camden ... in his Britannia of 1586 ... was ... the first person to write, albeit briefly, of the Puffin (Manx Shearwater)." Cullen and Jennings go on to write that "the earliest descriptive writings about Manx seabirds were those of James Chaloner and Francis Willughby." Chaloner wrote a vivid description of the Puffin in his Short Treatise of the Isle of Man which was published in 1656. Willughby visited the Calf of Man with John Ray in 1662 as part of a wider work, which was published by Ray in his book The Ornithology of Francis Willughby in 1678. Interestingly, in the context of this thread, the book gave "a detailed description of the Puffin of the Isle of Man, which they found on the Calf and clearly differentiated from Fratercula arctica, whixch they also found breeding in great numbers."
The one thing that this excellent account does not mention is what Fratercula arctica was called by these 17th century authors visiting the Isle of Man. Some Manx names are recorded for the species. I am used to calling it pibbin, but other names include parrad faarkee (=sea parrot) and the very young bird was called guilley bog (=soft boy).
Incidentally, the Manx shearwater is called scraayl in Manx.
Allen
Poecile said:
You go to intellectual pub quizes, Poecile!
I looked up "puffin" in the History of Manx Ornithology section in the definitive book on Manx Ornithology, "Birds of the Isle of Man" by J.P.Cullen and P.P.Jennings. It says that "William Camden ... in his Britannia of 1586 ... was ... the first person to write, albeit briefly, of the Puffin (Manx Shearwater)." Cullen and Jennings go on to write that "the earliest descriptive writings about Manx seabirds were those of James Chaloner and Francis Willughby." Chaloner wrote a vivid description of the Puffin in his Short Treatise of the Isle of Man which was published in 1656. Willughby visited the Calf of Man with John Ray in 1662 as part of a wider work, which was published by Ray in his book The Ornithology of Francis Willughby in 1678. Interestingly, in the context of this thread, the book gave "a detailed description of the Puffin of the Isle of Man, which they found on the Calf and clearly differentiated from Fratercula arctica, whixch they also found breeding in great numbers."
The one thing that this excellent account does not mention is what Fratercula arctica was called by these 17th century authors visiting the Isle of Man. Some Manx names are recorded for the species. I am used to calling it pibbin, but other names include parrad faarkee (=sea parrot) and the very young bird was called guilley bog (=soft boy).
Incidentally, the Manx shearwater is called scraayl in Manx.
Allen
Brian Stone
A Stone chatting
That is fascinating, thanks Allan. It's likely I guess that F. arctica had many and varied names at the time. It would be nice to track them down.
I'm still not 100% clear how F. arctica came to be called Puffin though.
I'm still not 100% clear how F. arctica came to be called Puffin though.
