174 Farry, Ornithology at St.. Marks. resi 
of showing plainly these small and relatively insignificant parts of a 
bird. Similarly, various birds which are not entitled to it are 
decorated with a white eye-ring to bring out an otherwise indistinct 
or else wholly unobvious eye. 
The central figure of the whole mosaic is of course Father Noah 
himself as he carefully puts into the Ark his pair of Peafowl. These 
birds are most beautiful. The splendid purple of the neck of the 
cock contrasts vividly with the green of the hen. As the Byzantine 
symbol of eternal life the Peacock is naturally the first bird to go 
into the Ark. The mosaicist is here at his best and with good 
reason. As the emblem of the beauty and glory of immortality, 
the lavishly-colored bird demanded special attention at the hands 
of the artist; and there resulted a finely drawn and colored picture 
as true to nature as to art. It is in the portrayal of this most 
magnificent of all birds that the man of the mosaics reaches his 
height as an artist of animal life. Like the Pheasant the Peacock 
is a bird of remarkable history. It was King Solomon’s ship of 
Tarshish (or else a craft of King Hiram’s) — the first “ East India- 
men” of which we have information — that brought this native 
of Indian forests over the old trade route from the East. This 
importation of Solomon’s into Palestine is the earliest record of 
the bird for the Mediterranean regions. Alexander the Great, 
however, is commonly thought to have introduced the resplendent 
fowl into Europe. 
As would be expected, some of the more striking forms of cos- 
mopolitan, water-bird life did not escape our medizval artist’s eye. 
His [correctly] red-billed, slaty Gallinule or Moorhen (one of the 
most familiar British wild birds of to-day and with closely-allied 
forms in America and Africa) is well depicted save for its red legs 
which artistic violation of avian proprieties has already been 
explained and condoned. 
Another extremely well-known water-bird of wide distribution 
is the Merganser. Here again the artist has achieved an ornitho- 
logical success — within limits. His pair of fish ducks have the 
crest and the toothed bill of their kind. Thus the strongly-marked 
form is extremely well-characterized. But while all-sufficient as to 
generic details which point unmistakably to Mergus, the crude 
coloration does not at all “favor” the striking and beautiful M. 
