How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and other wood-cuts/The Ibis; The 'Ibiscus

by Robert Williams Wood

The sacred Ibis, one might say,
Was classified a "Bird-of-Pray"
His body, after death, was dried,
Embalmed in pitch, and mummyfied,
And thus was handed down to us
In some old King's sarcophagus.
The Mallow, growing in the bogs,
('Ibiscus termed by pedagogues)
Is much opposed to dessication,
And bears no marks of veneration.