12 
NOTES OF OBSERVATIONS 
miserable season no remedy appeared applicable, and tlie amount of 
plant was seriously diminished. With regard to Tipula oleracea, Mr. 
Fitch mentions the larvae have been very abundant in his meadows 
and Lucerne leys this year; and notwithstanding the great numbers 
daily cleared off by the Starlings have been destructive to some 
extent. The perfect Crane Flies were first noticed on September 5th, 
and became generally common from the 10th and 12th. As this is 
the first time in which this insect, so. disastrously destructive to grass 
land, is included in our Report, Mr. Fitch records an instance of a 
remarkably bad attack occurring in a fair sized garden, at Maldon, in 
the beginning of April, 1876. The lawn was completely bared, and 
the larvae in such numbers that there was no difficulty in collecting 
them in barrowfuls; fifty-seven larvae were counted at one Daisy 
root. Hand-picking was useless, and a quantity of Ducks were turned 
in, the soil being stirred into shallow furrows from time to time to 
allow them to reach their prey. Eventually the ravages ceased almost 
as suddenly as they had begun, but not until every piece of grass in 
the garden was bared, as if it had been cut with a turfing iron and left 
to die on the spot. Grass seeds were sown in the late spring, and 
their growth encouraged by a judicious use of nitrate of soda and 
dissolved bone manure. This soon restored the turf, and the Tipula 
oleracea has hardly been noticeable since. Looking at the partiality 
of Tipulcc larvae for damp ground, and that of the perfect Crane Flies 
for rough neglected herbage, and their dislike to saline presence, it 
seems as if something might easily be done by draining, removal of 
lurking places, and dressing with chemical manures, at least to 
diminish this trouble ; and the fondness of birds for the grubs shows 
a direct method of destruction, whether by general encouragement of 
Insectivora in the fields, or the more limited application available in 
the garden. 
7. Anthomyia ceparum. Onion Maggot. Onion Mack (Scot- 
tice). Mr. McDonald mentions that at Balfour Castle, Kirkwall, 
Orkney, the Onion Maggot showed itself in the greatest numbers 
where Cow manure had lain for a considerable time previously to it 
being dug in; all the plants near to or beneath the position of the 
heaps were cleared off about July 1st. In the Isle of Mull the 
Anthomyia ceparum is mentioned by Mr. Grierson as exceedingly 
plentiful, fully two-thirds of the crop being destroyed. Mr. D. Melville, 
writing from the Gardens, Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland, notes that 
the Onion Fly has not been troublesome there this year. He says :— 
“ I find the best preventive in our light soil is to manure well with 
