Egg of ''Puffinus boydi''
(coll. MHNT) Boyd's shearwater (''Puffinus boydi''), also known as the Cape Verde little shearwater, is a small shearwater which breeds in the

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean some 570 km off the coast of West Africa. The

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

commemorates British

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

Arnold Boyd Arnold Whitworth Boyd MC, MA, FZS, FRES, MBOU (20 January 1885 – 16 October 1959) was an ornithologist and naturalist from Altrincham, Cheshire, England. Boyd was born on 20 January 1885. He was a long-time contributor to ''The Guardian'' ' ...

Taxonomy

Boyd's shearwater is sometimes considered a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of either the little shearwater,

Audubon's shearwater Audubon's shearwater (''Puffinus lherminieri'') is a common tropical seabird in the petrel family. Sometimes known as the dusky-backed shearwater,Carboneras (1992) the specific epithet honours the French naturalist Félix Louis L'Herminier. Cer ...

or Macaronesian shearwater. It has also been shown to be synonymous with the extinct ''Puffinus parvus'' Shufeldt of Bermuda.

References

* * Puffinus Birds of Cape Verde Birds described in 1912 {{Procellariiformes-stub