shearwater, ter

[See def.] sheër'-wa-ter, * shëre-wa Ornith.: The popular name of any species of the genus Puffin us (q. v.), found distributed over nearly all seas, usually at no great distance from land, to which however they only resort at the breeding season. Four Shearwaters visit the United Kingdom, but only one, Puffin us anglorum , the Manx Shearwater, is at all common. It is a plain-looking bird, about the size of a pigeon, black above and white beneath. Sir T. Browne ( Willoughby's Ornithologia (ed. Ray), p. 334) calls it, "a Sea-fowl which doth, as it were, radere aquam shear the water, from whence perhaps it has its name." Their habits appear to be the same all over the world, laying a single white egg in a hole under ground. The young are clothed with thick long down, are extremely fat, and are said to be good eating. "A sea-fowl called a she rewater , somewhat billed like a cormorant, but much le er; a strong and fierce fowl, hovering about ships when they cleanse their fish."Browne: On Norfolk Birds.