Canary

This sweet little songbird owes its name to a large breed of dog!

Stories that the group of volcanic islands to the north of Africa were inhabited by large dogs, led the Romans to call these islands Canariae Insulae or dog islands.

Canary became used as an adjective to describe exports form the islands, such as canary wine and canary birds.

As these tiny songbirds grew in popularity as pets in 16th century England, the large dogs were forgotten and canary came to denote these yellow finches.