Atlantic canary serin, and the two can produce on average 25% fertile hybrids if crossed. The phylogeny has been obtained by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al. The bird is named after the Canary Islands, not the other way around. The islands' name is derived from the Latin name "canariae insulae" ("islands of dogs") used by Arnobius, referring to the large dogs kept by the inhabitants of the islands. A legend of the islands, however, states that it was the conquistadors who named the islands after a fierce tribe inhabiting the largest island of the group, known as the 'Canarii'. The colour canary yellow
Canary Islands giant prehistoric tortoises, "Geochelone burchardi" and "Geochelone vulcanica". The islands may have been visited by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians. King Juba II, Caesar Augustus's Numidian protégé, is credited with discovering the islands for the Western world. According to Pliny the Elder, Juba found the islands uninhabited, but found "a small temple of stone" and "some traces of buildings". Juba dispatched a naval contingent to re-open the dye production facility at Mogador in what is now western Morocco in the early first century AD. That same naval force was subsequently sent on an exploration of the Canary Islands,