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• In the poem "The Dinkey-Bird," readers are told that the Dinkey-Bird lives across the ocean, in the "land of Wonder-Wander." In this land, where "gum-drops grow like cherries," the Dinkey-Bird sits and sings in the "amfalula tree."
  
  

Meaning

• Field's poem, like most poems, may be interpreted in many different ways. There is a very definite link, though, between the singing of the Dinkey-Bird and the laughter and happiness of children: "When I hear their laughter ringing,/Then I'm sure as sure can be/That the Dinkey-Bird is singing/In the amfalula tree!"
  
  

Illustrations

• Two illustrators who have attempted to render artistic images of the Dinkey-Bird are Charles Robinson and Maxfield Parrish. Robinson contributed illustrations to an 1897 collection of Field's poems, "Lullaby-Land: Songs of Childhood," while Parrish created a famous interpretation of the Dinkey-Bird for "Poems of Childhood," a 1904 collection of Eugene Field poems.
  
  

Music

• Over the years, a number of music composers have produced musical pieces based on "The Dinkey-Bird." In 1999, for example, a Maxfield Parrish Composers' Competition Concert was held in Philadelphia, and two works inspired by "The Dinkey-Bird" were featured. The composers were Randall Bauer and Chia-Yu Hsu.
  
  

Bird References

• Although no actual bird is referred to formally as a "Dinkey-Bird," the word "dinky" or "dinkey" is used occasionally to refer to small birds that may be considered "unspectacular" in terms of color or stature.