This crow was painted in West Bengal sometime in the 19th century, in a style that artists there adjusted to match the tastes of colonial collectors.

The corvid family – ravens, crows, rooks, jays, jackdaws – are a likeable lot. They are clever, sociable (most of them), use tools, and sometimes play games with each other. I’m especially fond of choughs (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax). They have fine glossy black plumage, red legs and a long curved scarlet beak. They inhabit rocky cliffs around the western coasts of the British Isles, where they perform aerial acrobatics on the updraughts – apparently for the sheer fun of it.

As for Covid-19, the most reassuring approach, I think, is to take a long view. Not all of us will survive it, but most will. It might even save the planet (look at this satellite map showing nitrogen dioxide emissions in China in January 2019, and again in February this year). The small feathered dinosaurs were here before us and will probably outlive us. All we can do is take care of one another, wherever we happen to come from.