Surely one of the most reliable ways to cure depression is to sit someone down near a party of foraging quails and wait. Although painfully shy birds, they are also incurably curious and if you whistle even a half-decent rendition of their contact call the entire family will come tottering along the field to find you. So strongly are they bonded as a group I suppose that my plaintive calls ignite in them a sudden sense that they have left one of their own behind! “What?!! Absolutely unthinkable!!! We simply MUST go back for them!!’…or something like that. Anyway, it never fails to elicit soft mewing sounds and bring a smile to the lips of even the most screen-addicted teenager.