Feather

Feathers are items dropped from chickens  when they die. The only use for feathers at the moment is to make arrows to fire from a bow. Chickens drop 0-2 feathers upon death.

History
Feathers were introduced in Indev on February 19, 2010. In previous versions, Zombies dropped feathers, instead of rotten flesh. Now, chickens are the only source of feathers for use. Feathers cannot be eaten. Feathers also do very little damage against animals. Because their is loads of chickens in minecraft it shouldn't be hard to obtain

Appearance
Feathers have been mistaken for knives due to their apparent "handle" and by the fact that zombies used to drop them. Zombies have since been adjusted to only drop rotten flesh instead.