fratercula

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of marine diving-birds of the family Alcidœ; the puffins or masked auks. They have three-toed webbed feet, very short wings and tail, the bill exceedingly compressed and vertically ridged, with its gayly colored horny covering deciduous, a rosette at the angle of the mouth, and fleshy appendages of the eyelids. The common puffin is F. arctica; the horned puffin, F. corniculata. The tufted puffin, F. cirrata, is sometimes placed in this genus, but now oftener called Lunda cirrata. The genus gives name with some to a subfamily Fraterculinœ. See puffin.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. a genus of sea birds, one of the genera of puffins.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. puffins.