CRANE FLIES AS FOOD OF THE ROBIN. 13! 
these could hardly be sufficient in number nor of such a character as to 
affect the general results. 
Since these investigations were undertaken largely from the fruit- 
growers’ standpoint it has been suggested that possibly where fruit is not 
s0 abundant as in this locality, where the robins were shot, the results 
do not show the agricultural as well as the horticultural phases of the 
question. Consequently some robins were shot in meadows in the spring 
of 1892 by Mr. J. S. Hine, and examinations made by Prof. Webster, who 
reports the results below : 
CRANE FLIES (Tipulia) AS FOOD OF THE ROBIN. 
BY F. M. WEBSTER. 
These are large, slender bodied flies, with very long legs, and are. 
sometimes called ‘‘ Gallinippers.” In England their larve or maggots 
are known as “leather jackets.’’ There, too, they prove a serious pest of 
the wheat fields, especially in ground following clover. In this country 
they are only just coming into notice as farm pests, but some of our 
species bid fair to rival their English congeners in their work of destruc- 
tion, affecting not only wheat, on new ground, but clover and grass lands 
as well. 
During the spring of 1892 fourteen robins wereshot, on various dates 
and in different localities about Columbus. In some of these fields we 
knew the larve of crane flies to be very abundant; but, of the whole 
number of robins shot, but three had eaten crane fly larvee, as shown by 
an examination of the stomachs. Of these, one had evidently made a 
full meal from this food. We did not find in the food partaken of by the 
whole series a trace of an adult; yet it is known that they do, sometimes 
at least, devour the adults, as eggs have been found in their stomachs in 
Illinois. 
As the robin is a constant visitor of the grass lands in spring, it was 
hoped that in them we might find a useful servant in destroying this pest, 
but our investigations, which seem to us to have been both careful and 
judicious, did not fulfill our hopes in that direction. Robins get from 
the grass lands, in April and May, a very large per cent. of their food, 
but it has, so far, proven to consist for the most part of insects of whose 
destructive propensities we have as yet no proof, while the crane flies, 
which we do know to be injurious, are, even when abundant, eaten only 
sparingly. 
