260 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 90 



" If there be a paradise on earth, 

 It is this, it is this^, it is this " — 



Words cannot depict, nor pictunes suggest the simple grand- 

 eur of this Diwan-i-Khas, or Hall of Private Audience ; but 

 the following description by another is among the most suc- 

 cessful attempt : " The whole is all white marble, asheen in 

 the sun, but that is the least part oi the wonder. Walls 

 and ceilings, pillars, and many pointed arches are all inlaid 

 with richest, yet most delicate, colour ; gold cornices and 

 scrolls and lattices from traceries of mauve and pale green 

 and soft azure. What must it have been, you ask yourself, 

 when the Peacock Throne blazed with emeralds and sap- 

 phires, rubies and diamonds, from the now empty pedestal, 

 and the plates of burnished silver reflected all its glories from 

 the roof." 



Not far away is the Diwan-i-Am c-r Hall of Public Audi- 

 ence, built of red stone, except that white marble is used in 

 front of the throne recess. The juxtaposition of the two kinds 

 of stone produces a very poor effect, which is enhanced by 

 the patchwork impression wade by the arrang-ements of the 

 mosaic panels on the rear wall. There are about three hun- 

 dred and fifty oi these mosaic pictu-res, large and small, rep- 

 resenting birds, flowers, fruit, and animals, more than half 

 of them portraying birds. A closer view shows them worthy 

 the attention of bird students. Not only is there spirited and 

 realistic action expressed in the drawing of the bi-rds, but the 

 color is often most excellent ; especially is this true of four 

 pictures of Hoopoes. Sometimes the birds are perched, oth- 

 ers are on the wing. When it is remembered that these are 

 made of stone, that at times one piece of stone represents the 

 feathe-rs of a tail or of a wing the accomplishment seems re- 

 markable. 



India's monuments are far-famed and a lure for many vis- 

 itors. Thrice fortunate are we whose favorite studies have 

 been history, art, and ornithology, for that country affords 

 ■rich fields of studv in all of these. If there had been no other 



