IF you feel a temper tantrum coming on, here is a tip that could calm you down: "One cannot be angry when one look at a penguin!"
It is a quotation from the Victorian essayist and social commentator John Ruskin that is included in the most unexpected of sources - a new book about birds.
The compendium of interesting and amusing sayings is not the least of the many impressive features of The Bird Book which was published earlier this month.
Also quoted is the great French Impressionist artist Claude Monet who once said: "I would like to paint the way a bird sings."
Subtitled The Stories, Science and History of Birds, this comprehensive and stunningly-illustrated volume covers pretty well all the angles from feeding behaviour to migration and from anatomy to courtship .
The science of every aspect of birdlife is examined in ways that are authoritative, enlightening and accessible not just to adults but also to curious older children.
But its readability is enhanced no end by the accompanying exploration of the many ways in which, since earliest times, birds have played a huge role the world over in the development of human civilisation..
Along the way, there are many intriguing insights - for instance, that great tits have been known to catch and eat hibernating bats and that hummingbirds lap up nectar at 14 sips per second!
There is no single author.
Much of the writing is the work of Rob Hume, of RSPB fame, but there are also important contributions from such other leading lights of the birding world as Josh Jones, Dominic Couzens, Chris Harbard, James Lowen, Chris Sharpe and Marianne Taylor.
Highly recommended, The Bird Book is published in hardback at £30 by DK.
www.dk.com/.../