180 Far.ey, Ornithology at St. Marks. Fen 
The picture is a crowded one — full of life and motion — kaleido- 
scopic —a phantasmagoria in fact of bird-life and fish-life — but 
with really good effective grouping. There is a whirl and a swirl 
of fishes in the blue sea below and a crowd of flying birds in the pale 
sky above. The sea swarms with brilliant-hued fish darting this 
way and that, the whole revolving around the central figure of a 
terrific sea-monster, bewhiskered and with plesiosaurus-like teeth — 
undoubtedly the earliest known representation of the sea-serpent 
(but agreeing wonderfully well with latter-day descriptions by 
truthful mariners) and as such peculiarly fit for mural decoration 
in maritime Venice. 
The crowd of birds overhead in the breezy firmament complete 
the other half of this most beautiful mosaic. They are mostly 
seafowl although the inevitable Owl, so favored by medieval 
artists, appears. There are the conventional Mallard, the Swan, 
Gulls white and pied, an Egret (for the Egret was as well-known 
in a state of nature — if not on woman’s head-gear — in the thir- 
teenth century as in a later Audubonian day), and various non- 
descripts — nearly all with legs and wings poorly, yes appallingly, 
drawn but the whole flock well grouped nevertheless and exceed- 
ingly full of life and motion. The breezy picture in short smacks 
of the sea, and the forgotten artist who made it surely knew his sea. 
The simple beauty of the very early mosaics of Byzantine type 
in the atrium of San Marco appeals to all. Most original and often 
quaint they are undoubtedly among the most attractive of the 
earlier mosaics in the glorious building — as they are among the 
finest. But these Old Testament subjects take on an added interest 
when the fact of their origin is recalled. The mosaicists who exe- 
cuted them copied Byzantine originals. The illuminations in 
some early Bible of type similar to the Cotton Bible (if not in that 
ancient book itself) are evidently reproduced on the vaulting and 
the arches of the atrium. Even if not copied direct from the 
Cotton Bible of the fifth century, at least the designs are essentially 
identical with the paintings in that age-worn book. 
Lord Macauley seems to have noted as early as any the likeness 
of the atrium mosaics to the miniatures in an early Bible. He has 
told of the pleasing impressions which he gained from his inspec- 
tion of St. Mark’s. “I never was more entertained by any build- 
