You should read this book if you know nothing about birds, and equally, if you marvel at them or enjoy watching them and listening to their calls. Madhaviah Krishnan, one of India’s greatest naturalists, and incontestably our finest nature writer in English, will hold you spellbound with his lapidary descriptions of birds in the forest, waterfowl, grassland birds, nocturnal birds and even common urban birds like the house crow, the mynah, parrots, pigeons and (alas, the no-longer-so-common) house sparrow.