Shearwater
Overview
 
Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged seabird
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...

s. There are more than 30 species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of shearwaters, a few larger ones in the genus Calonectris
Calonectris
Calonectris is a genus of seabirds. It comprises three large shearwaters. There are two other shearwater genera. Puffinus, which comprises about twenty small to medium-sized shearwaters, and Procellaria with another four large species...

and many smaller species in the genus Puffinus
Puffinus
Puffinus is a genus of seabirds in the order Procellariiformes. It comprises about 20 small to medium-sized shearwaters. There are two other shearwater genera: Calonectris, which comprises three large shearwaters, and Procellaria with another four large species...

. The Procellaria
Procellaria
Procellaria is a genus of southern ocean long-winged seabirds related to prions and a member of the Procellariiformes order.-Taxonomy:Procellaria is a member of the family Procellariidae and the order procellariiformes. As members of Procellariiformes, they share certain characteristics. First they...

petrel
Petrel
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group...

s and Bulweria
Bulweria
Bulweria is a genus of seabirds in the family Procellariidae named after English naturalist James Bulwer. The genus has two living species, Bulwer's Petrel and Jouanin's Petrel...

 were believed to belong to this group, but are only distantly related based on more recent studies, while the Pseudobulweria
Pseudobulweria
Pseudobulweria is a genus of seabirds in the family Procellariidae. They have long been retained with the gadfly petrel genus Pterodroma despite morphological differences. mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis has confirmed the split out of Pterodroma and places the genus closer to shearwaters...

and Lugensa "petrels" are more closely related (Bretagnolle et al., 1998; Nunn & Stanley, 1998).
Quotations

Jonathan Meiburg

Kim Burke

Thor Harris

Howard Draper

Hurts so bad that you know it's not sinning.The funny thing is it's just beginning to feel good.

Not Tonight

If you stay sober, I'll put the kettle on. And you can come over, drink tea, and watch the lawn.

If You Stay Sober

It's like a dream I had: this girl I went to see (and I can't sing her name, she might be listening to me), in a room of missing tiles we felt ourselves entwine, and she bit my tongue and shouted as I crawled into her mind.

The Left Side

People got no respect for the dead; they roll new plans out neatly.

An Accident

Everybody makes mistakes - some do most of all. "I just don’t have what it takes," they’re singing as they fall.

Mistakes

 
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