Feather

Feathers are items dropped by killed Chickens. Feathers are used to make Arrows to shoot from a Bow or Dispenser.

Appearance
Feathers have occasionally been mistaken for knives due to their apparent "handle" and by the fact that zombies used to drop them.

Planned uses
Jeb has expressed interest in having feathers be used along with ink sacs for writing in books.

History
Feathers were introduced in Indev on February 19, 2010.

During the early stages of Indev, they had a slightly different appearance:

Until Beta 1.8, Zombies dropped feathers instead of Rotten Flesh. Now, chickens are the only source of feathers. The reason that zombies used to drop feathers is that they were used as a placeholder (before chickens were implemented in the game). As to why the game was left this way, it could have been overlooked, or just ignored. However, some players liked it better when zombies had this nonsensical drop, for it was easier to obtain the feathers from zombies; such as in mob traps.