Feather

Feathers are items dropped by killed Chickens. Feathers are used to make Arrows to shoot from a Bow or Dispenser. They are also used to make book and quill (in the latest snapshot).

As a Crafting Ingredient
Note: The Book and Quill can only be crafted in Snapshot 12w17a and later. The recipe is shapeless.

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). It stayed this way because Notch did not know what exactly zombies would drop.