"Free" Children's Song without copright markings

[Amelia.pd]

The children's song "Wheels on the Bus" is available for free download (in lyrics & chords PDF version) from several websites that are targeted at young kids. One website states that the piece is traditional, by an unknown composer and that its copyright is unknown. If the piece is traditional, by an unknown composer, does not display any copyright markings and is advertised as a free download isn't it in the public domain?

[Carolus]

Not necessarily. First of all, the words suggest that at least the text is less than 120 years old, as the object of the title (a bus) hasn't been around that long. A quick WorldCat search of the title gave an earliest printing of 1972 in a collection by Nancy Larrick also entitled The Wheels of the Bus Go Round and Round, School Bus Songs and Chants. The chances of this being public domain are pretty slim, actually.