PliOCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 957 



common crow can make a1)ont twenty-five miles, the eider duck 

 ninety miles, the e:ii;-le llO miles, the hawl: and many other birds 150 

 miles per h(nir. The liii;-]it of nli^■ra:torT hirds docs not probahly 

 exceed fifty miles within the lu)nr. A falcon belon_ii;ing to Henry IV, 

 of France, escaped from Foiitainel)k"an and was finnd at Malta, low- 

 ing made at least 1,530 miles wiihin twenty-four hours. Sir John 

 Koss, on the (!th of October, 1850, dispatched from Assistance 13ay 

 two yonng carrier pigeons, and on October 13th one of them reached 

 its dovecote in Aryshire, Scotland. The direct distance being about 

 2,000 miles, the speed was comparatively slow. Birds whose Ifight 

 has excited astonishment have been in most instances assisted by 

 aerial currents moving in the same direction. 



A niember remarked that the crow was swifter than the hawk, and 

 would always conq-uer when those two came in contact. 



A Curious Apple. 

 The editor of Tilton's Journal of Horticulture for December, 

 says : " We remember seeing, some years ago, at an exhibition of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, an apple called the ' Xo Core,' 

 which, singularly enough, had two cores. We had also another 

 apple, received from Messrs. Baumann, the French nurserymen, the 

 ' llillars Grande,' which showed the same extraordinary formation, 

 and in turning over the J^^ew Duhamel, we came upon a colored 

 plate of the ' Pomme Figue,' showing alsD a section of the fruit and 

 exhibiting the same peculiarity. We think it ])ossiJ)le that the two 

 varieties are identical. The llower of the Hillars (li-ande was desti- 

 tute of petals, or showed only what was supposed to be bracts in their 

 place. The section of the flowers of the Ponnne Figue given in 

 Duhamel appears as if these supposed bracts, were the sepals of the 

 calj-x of the second flower ; one being superimposed upon the other 

 on the same axis. The fruit of the Hillars Grande was of a yellow 

 color, with dull, reddish-brown cheek, pearmain-shaped, tapering, 

 with quite concave lines, and sliowing the five cai'pels very plainly 

 in prominent knobs at tlie a{)ex. It was sweet, and rather dry, and 

 of little value except as a curiosity." 



FlLTK.VTIOX OF BlVKP. ^^^\TK^S FOP. St. LoPIS. . 



Mr. James P. Kirkwood, C. E., has made a report on tlie filtration 

 of river waters, for the supply of cities, as practiced in Europe, and 

 reconnnends to the Water Gonnni^^sioners of the city of St. Louis, 



