91É«ÇéƬ

IF YOU have ever wondered why the obsessive egg collector still exists, you have only to glance through this handsomely produced book. Birds’ Eggs (Eyewitness Handbooks, Dorling Kindersley, pp 256, £12.99) shows the eggs of some 500 species of birds, giving a vivid impression of the huge variety of shapes, sizes and colours of eggshells that exist. My favourites are the eggs of the red-winged tinamou, with their amazing, porcelain-like gloss. Michael Walters has supplied the concise and informed text, while the eggs are all reproduced life-size, with several examples given for each species covered. All were photographed at the Natural History Museum in London.