"In his new book The Unburnt Egg: More stories of a museum curator, Brian Gill delves further into the mysteries of the natural history collections he has worked with over three decades. Many stories in the book are so bizarre they read like fiction. The title refers to an extraordinary incident where the home of an elderly reclusive woman burnt to the ground and in the ashes was found a rare untouched moa egg. Others reveal the detective work involved in unravelling the strange history of specimens in museum collections. Gill is a gifted storyteller who enriches the book with engaging scientific information, from the ever-evolving explanations for the dying out of the huia to the reason so many seal bones are found in certain sand dunes, and why the shining cuckoo leaves its young to be raised by other birds."