132 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Where the Pelican Builds. — Mr. G. W. Rutherford, of 

 Boorooma station, vid Brewarrina, N.S.W., writes as follows : — 

 " I have often heard some doubt expressed as to whether 

 Pelicans make their nests and hatch their young in New South 

 Wales, and have always been under the impression that they did 

 not do so. I find I am mistaken, as at the present time 

 (November, 1904) on this run, at a spot where the Narran River 

 empties into the Narran Lake, there are a great number of nests — 

 in fact, a regular ' rookery,' covering about three acres, in which 

 the eggs are in all stages. Many eggs are already hatched, and 

 the young birds very much in evidence. The eggs are about 

 the size and colour of a goose egg. Heaps of dead fish are 

 strewn about the ground, which have been carried to the nests by 

 the old birds." — Australasian. 



Native Bread. — Under the title of " Native or Blackfellows' 

 Bread," Mr. D. M'Alpine contributes to the Agricultural Journal 

 of Victoria for November, 1904, an exhaustive article on the 

 fungus Polyporus mylittoe, C. and M., known as " Native 

 Bread," which is particularly well illustrated. It is just seventy 

 years years since the first account of this fungus was written by 

 J. Backhouse in an article descriptive of the roots and other 

 indigenous esculents of Van Diemen's Land. He remarks that 

 its taste somewhat resembles boiled rice, but that like the heart 

 of the tree-fern and the root of the native potato — the orchid 

 Gastrodia sesamoides — cookery produces little change in it. It 

 has been doubted whether the fungus was ever used as food by 

 the aboriginals. However, definite evidence is given by two 

 gentlemen who had charge of aboriginal stations for many years 

 that it was so used, but apparently, beyond creating a feeling of 

 fulness, it could not have been very satisfying, for Mr. J. H, 

 Maiden, F.L.S., Government Botanist of New South Wales, who 

 tested the substance in a variety of ways, says that it does not 

 contain nitrogen in any form, and is practically unalterable in 

 water or reagents. When cut into pieces and placed in liquid no 

 swelling takes place, the cut edges lose none of their sharpness, 

 nor does the substance soften. When boiled in a dilute alkaline 

 solution, only a small proportion of pectic acid is dissolved, and 

 this is thrown down when the solution is rendered acid. It is 

 immaterial whether it is eaten raw or cooked, as hot or cold 

 water are equally ineffective in acting upon it. It can therefore 

 be of only infinitesimal value as a source of food. He considers 

 the native bread to consist mainly of a modification of cellulose, 

 most probably fungin. 



