Editing Rock sparrow (section)

==Taxonomy==
The first [[Species description|formal description]] of the rock sparrow was by the Swedish naturalist [[Carl Linnaeus]] in 1766 in the [[12th edition of Systema Naturae|twelfth edition]] of his ''[[Systema Naturae]]''. He introduced the [[binomial nomenclature|binomial name]] ''Fringilla petronia''.<ref>{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1766 | title=Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=12th | volume=1, Part 1 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii  | place=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=la | page=322 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42946518 }}</ref> It is now the only species in the genus ''Petronia'' that was introduced by the German naturalist [[Johann Jakob Kaup]] in 1829.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Kaup | first=Johann Jakob | author-link=Johann Jakob Kaup | year=1829 | title=Skizzirte Entwickelungs-Geschichte und Naturliches System der Europaischen Thierwelt | volume=c. 1 | language=de | place=Darmstadt | publisher=Carl Wilhelm Leske | page=158 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41576581 }}</ref><ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | year=2018 | title=Old World sparrows, snowfinches, weavers | work=World Bird List Version 8.1 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/weavers/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=8 May 2018 }}</ref> ''Petronia'' is a local name for the rock sparrow from the [[Bologna]] area of Italy.<ref>{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url=https://archive.org/details/helmdictionarysc00jobl_997 | url-access=limited | publisher=Christopher Helm | location =London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=[https://archive.org/details/helmdictionarysc00jobl_997/page/n300 300] }}</ref>

Seven [[subspecies]] are recognised:<ref name=ioc/>
* ''P. p. petronia'' (Linnaeus, 1766) – Madeira and Canary Islands, south Europe to west Turkey
* ''P. p. barbara'' [[Carlo von Erlanger|Erlanger]], 1899 – northwest Africa
* ''P. p. puteicola'' Festa, 1894 – south Turkey to Jordan
* ''P. p. exigua'' ([[Carl Eduard Hellmayr|Hellmayr]], 1902) – central Turkey to the Caucasus, north Iran and north Iraq
* ''P. p. kirhizica'' [[Petr Sushkin|Sushkin]], 1925 – Caspian Sea to Kyrgyzstan
* ''P. p. intermedia'' [[Ernst Hartert|Hartert]], 1901 – Iran and north Afghanistan to northwest China
* ''P. p. brevirostris'' [[Władysław Taczanowski|Taczanowski]], 1874 – Mongolia, south central Siberia and north and central China

Some species have once been classified under Petronia, specifically from the related genus Gymnoris (''[[Petronia superciliaris]], [[Petronia dentata]], [[Petronia xanthocollis]]'') and Carpospiza (''[[Petronia brachydactyla]]'').