It's probably a long time since any of you rolled hard boiled eggs, dyed with blossoms of the whins, at this time of year. A very, very long time since anyone you knew collected wild birds' eggs. Decades ago, the collecting of the eggs of thrushes or wood pigeons or warblers or whatever was seen as evidence of a love of and curiosity about the wild life around us. Now, of course, television cameras bring us magnificent close up shots of the most intimate mating and nesting habits of birds. But if, by accident, you come across a nest in a hedge or in the reeds, especially one of the smaller birds, you wonder if you couldn't take home with you one just one of these most exquisite objects of creation. Like a precious jewel. You can't, of course, and rightly so. It's against the law. Nasty people raid eggs of rare species, particularly predators, and make a dirty trade of it. But just one sky blue egg from a nest in the hedge near your house? Put it out of your mind eggs and their sources not all are from birds makes up a completely absorbing exhibition at the ENFO establishment in St Andrew's Street, Dublin. It originated with the Ulster Museum. You see birds eggs a plenty a cuckoo is perched near the tiny nest of the reed warbler into which it has dropped its own egg on top of those already there. You see and read about all the shapes and shades of many eggs, and why they are so.
Why are some sea birds' eggs pointed? Go and find out. One big surprise, in a way, is the fact that eggs come from so many different creatures. Insects are there in profusion.
Some (beetles, weren't they?) almost as big as rats. Almost. And then you have turtles and other armoured creatures.
Fish, of course. And on one plaque there are three out standing fish a bass or sea bass as they write, a fine big trout and, surprise, an Atlantic sturgeon, caught in the Irish Sea. And we know what sturgeons' eggs are for. There is an enormous amount of information to be gleaned, wandering from show case to show case. A detailed catalogue with illustrations would probably be beyond the resources of both the Ulster Museum and ENFO. Pity.
There is so much. They do give you a fact sheet if you ask. It is meant for schoolchildren and contains such questions as "Where does the Duck Billed Platypus lay its eggs?" and why does the Oystercatcher develop bare patches of skin during the breeding season? But very much worth going to.
Closed over Easter, reopening Wednesday.