Joel Gold, age 14, of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for his question:

How did the Canary Islands get their name?

Words have a way of wandering from language to language, often changing as they go. In this case, a wild dog was transformed into a singing bird and perhaps a few human whistles were added to the miracle. These lovely islands were known to a few early sailors who ventured outside the sheltered Mediterranean into the stormy Atlantic. No doubt they admired the picturesque mountains and the fertile valleys. But they were most impressed by the large wild dogs they found running around. Their word for dog was cants    and the group of islands was named Canaria.

Much later, Canaria was modernized to Canary Islands. Apparently bolder investigators ignored the fierce dogs, at least long enough to meet the sweet singing birds that thronged in the mountains. Naturally these songsters of the Canary Islands were called canary birds. The native inhabitants whistle like birds to communicate from peak to peak    though this interesting item may or may not belong in the story.