01357cam a2200253 4500 503779140 TxAuBib 20160420120000.0 151006s2016||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9781632863690 1632863693 TxAuBib Birkhead, T. R. The most perfect thing : inside (and outside) a bird's egg / Tim Birkhead. New York : Bloomsbury, 2016. 288 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : ills (some color.) Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-265) and index. Climmers and collectors -- Making shells -- The shape of eggs -- Colouring eggs : how? -- Colouring eggs : why? -- Much ado about albumen : the microbe war -- Yolk, ovaries, and fertilisation -- Stupendious love : laying, incubation, and hatching -- Lupton's legacy. Renowned ornithologist Tim Birkhead uses birds' eggs as wondrous portals into natural history, enlivened by the stories of naturalists and scientists, including Birkhead and his students, whose discoveries have advanced current scientific knowledge of reproduction. 20160420. Birds Eggs. Birds Embryology. Birds Reproduction.