A wondrous bird is the pelican

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A wondrous bird is the pelican (1913)
by Anonymous

"Along the By-Paths", Dixon Lanier Merritt, Nashville Banner, April 22, 1913

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The authorship of this poem is uncertain. It has sometimes been credited to Dixon Lanier Merritt in whose regular column "Along the By-Paths" this form of the text was published, but Merritt did not claim, and subsequently firmly denied, authorship. A slightly different version ("A gorgeous bird...") had earlier appeared in the Tampa Morning Tribute, April 2, 1913, under the heading Real Florida "Poetry", which credited authorship to "C. M. Marshton, one of the editors of the Chicago Record-Herald".

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478648A wondrous bird is the pelican — "Along the By-Paths", Dixon Lanier Merritt, Nashville Banner, April 22, 19131913Anonymous

Oh, a wondrous bird is the pelican!
His beak holds more than his belican.
He takes in his beak
Food enough for a week.
But I'll be darned if I know how the helican.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1972, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 52 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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