European goldfinch
The European goldfinch was one of the birds described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his "Historiae animalium" of 1555. The first formal description was by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his "Systema Naturae" published in 1758. He introduced the binomial name, "Fringilla carduelis". "Carduelis" is the Latin word for 'goldfinch'. The European goldfinch is now placed in the genus "Carduelis" that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 by tautonomy based on Linneus's specific epithet. Modern molecular genetic studies have shown that the European goldfinch is closely related to the citril finch ("Carduelis citrinella") and the Corsican finch ("Carduelis corsicana").