eae | Farey, Ornithology at St. Marks. yy 
would be brought out much better by white than by pink. As to 
the unparrotlike white spotting on the breasts of the birds, this 
may be explained by the guess that either a moulting or a cage- 
worn specimen was copied. The artist must not be taken too 
strictly. It is not assumed that he ever saw the Ring-necked 
Parroquet in its native Indian wilds. Let it suffice that we see 
in the mosaic undoubtedly the first representation in color of the 
ancient Parrot which Aristotle mentions and Pliny describes. 
The flocks of the Ring-necked Parroquet swarming in the jungle 
are among the characteristic features of the East Indian landscape. 
Not only in forest but in town and village the harsh cries and 
abundance of the beautiful bird make it notable. It is the best 
known of East Indian parrots — this “ Rose-ringed Parrakeet.”’ 
Among the remaining birds, more or less identifiable in the 
picture, are a small white pair which are probably meant for Doves; 
and a second Columbine pair, green-backed and black-billed, which 
seem to represent some species of the very edible East Indian green 
Fruit Pigeon group — 7’ reronine — several species of which are 
found commonly in India today. 
There are more birds in the lowest mosaic which shows the entry 
of Noah and family into the Ark. The family stand at attention 
while “the father of the flock” puts into the ship his last remaining 
birds. As Noah hands in two splendid yellow-eyed and black- 
billed Eagles, he turns and gazes full-faced at the spectator with a 
most imposing air of playing to the gallery. These Eagles are finely 
colored; and this is specially true of their yellow legs and feet and 
black claws which are depicted — one might almost say drawn — 
with painstaking care. As in the case of the Peacock the artist 
plainly took special pains with his Eagles as would be expected in 
the unscientific age that regarded the Eagle as the King of birds. 
The naked tarsi of these birds indicate that they are Sea Eagles 
(Halieetus), although there is no reason to doubt that the “nobler” 
form — the Golden Eagle of the feathered leg — was a well-known 
bird of the period in Italy. Perhaps the mosaicist’s zoological 
knowledge did not extend so far as tarsi, whether feathered or not. 
On the other hand the black bills of the pair indicate the genus 
Aquila of which the Golden Eagle, wide-spread in the Northern 
Hemisphere (but a rather “ better” bird in America than in Europe), 
