PS...google *drinking bird* & you'll find it. I was wrong about the mechanism that made him go up & down. When I lived in California we called the roadside oil wells *dinky-birds*.
inframan
17-Jun-2007 12:20
I may have spelled it wrong, Jeff. It was a popular novelty item for years - a long-necked geeky-looking bird, about 6 inches high) with a little hat as I recall, made out of some absorbent material, that perched on a thin horizontal rod. You put a glass of water in front of him & he would "drink" & as he drank (& absorbed water), he dunked slower (as I recall - someone may want to correct a faulty memory) until he stopped. Then, when enough water evaporated, he started again.
Rumor was that he was invented by the actor Eddie Albert (of Green Acres).
