Dominicans in feathers ...

Hi All, 

Last year, I had the pleasure of visiting the City of Birmingham. It is really a cool place, quite multi-cultural and of course the people - the Brummies- have that wonderfully soft spoken, laid back accent and of course their notorious deadpan sense of humour (I should know as I live with one). One of the highlights was to visit the Museum and Art Gallery. On of my favorite paintings is this one, called 'Dominicans in feathers' by Henry Marks . I like all things penguin, but I did wonder about  about the religious illusions in the title . 

Looking this up, apparently (via the Birmingham M& AG site)  :

"The title compares the black and white plumage of the penguins to the black and white robes of Dominican monks. It was intended to be both gently comic and more bitingly satirical. Marks was noted for both his humourous subjects and his paintings of birds. In his autobiography he notes that birds made better models that humans, since they were less conceited, less greedy and less boring."

But what is it about penguins and 'dominicans' (whom I believe are an order of Monks?), which makes this satire. 

Or am I just not arty enough to get the satire ? 

Can anyone help?