Scientists are beginning to discover more sednoids thanks to better search efforts.

When a female friend of mine questioned Robert Wright, the author of The Moral Animal and one of the prime popularisers of this position, about some of his unshakable convictions in the male-female contrariety, he opened his eyes wide, stared at her, and said, manfully, You don’t know what it’s like.

During the summer months they sport smoky-black plumage, their wings speckled with white spots, but at this time of year they have mottled grey backs with paler underparts, making them difficult to distinguish from the more prolific common redshank (T totanus).

The analysis of mobile data plans in 230 countries revealed that the UK ranked a “disappointing” 136th when the cost of one gigabyte (1GB) of mobile data was looked at.