Cock feather in a bonnet for civilian attire.

[ThistleDown]

We must also keep in mind that the eagle feather business is not 'Scots' tradition, but 'Highland Scots' tradition. Even if it is only 150 years old that is certainly enough time under the belt for a tradition to be established. About that long ago was the Crimean War, the US Civil War, Chinese rebellions, the Austro-Prussian War, the French were in Mexico, Russia sold Alaska to the US, and Highland aristos were wearing eagle feathers. A sign of their self-importance, perhaps, and a bit like the pre-dandy of seventy-five years earlier who stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni. Today dandies don't usually wear feathers, but it has become traditional for Highland chiefs and other armigers to. (There are a few dandy chiefs, mind you.)

As others have said, best to leave your feathers on the bird.

[creagdhubh]

We must also keep in mind that the eagle feather business is not 'Scots' tradition, but 'Highland Scots' tradition. Even if it is only 150 years old that is certainly enough time under the belt for a tradition to be established. About that long ago was the Crimean War, the US Civil War, Chinese rebellions, the Austro-Prussian War, the French were in Mexico, Russia sold Alaska to the US, and Highland aristos were wearing eagle feathers. A sign of their self-importance, perhaps, and a bit like the pre-dandy of seventy-five years earlier who stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni. Today dandies don't usually wear feathers, but it has become traditional for Highland chiefs and other armigers to. (There are a few dandy chiefs, mind you.)

As others have said, best to leave your feathers on the bird.

Precisely, Rex. Well put.

[Kilted Cole]

I do agree with the previous comments about why one should avoid wearing a feather in a bonnet during Scottish/Highland Scottish events, especially when there is so much else one can put in their cap. I personally like the way the feather gives the bonnet a "streamline" appearance. However, not being an armiger, I avoid wearing a feather with my bonnets and tams. Instead I put the Dandelion that I bought from Mr. Ashton in and give the leaf's a similar look. There are other clans that have plant badges that can have the same effect, Clan Cameron for example has the Oak leaf, and I see that as almost more appealing than a feather.

Dandilion can have the effect of the chiefs feathers.jpgRobert Mackie Balmoral with Highland Tiger adopter pin.jpg

[auld argonian]

You've all got me wondering who the first guy was who stuck a feather in his hat….like, the very first guy. What did he have on his mind? Did he walk back to his camp or village or whatever and people looked and said, "…cool!", or did they say, "…what are you made up for?". I can sorta understand the eagle feather thing…wearing the feather of the big, top of the food chain bird to indicate your position but what's the historical root of a man wearing a feather in his hat?

Best

AA

addenda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_feather_in_your_cap

[Tobus]

You've all got me wondering who the first guy was who stuck a feather in his hat….like, the very first guy. What did he have on his mind?

I have it on good authority that it was a fellow named Yankee Doodle. He was apparently riding a pony. I'm not sure what was on his mind, but it may have been a small elbow pasta.

[OC Richard]

Keep in mind that every element of traditional military pipers' dress began as civilian attire, the only exceptions coming to mind being the tight collar of the doublet (the doublet itself being originally civilian) and the collar badges on that collar.

Feathers were long worn in civilian Highland dress, and continued to be worn.

Here's a civilian piper with a blackcock tail



Here you can see blackcock tails worn by three different regiments



But not the Cameron Highlanders > Queens Own Highlanders > The Highlanders' pipers who have always worn a single eagle feather

[Nathan]

Post deleted. I had already mentioned it and forgotten.

[MacKenzie]

I have it on good authority that it was a fellow named Yankee Doodle. He was apparently riding a pony. I'm not sure what was on his mind, but it may have been a small elbow pasta.

The internet can lead to some strange discoveries.

The song "Yankee Doodle," from the time of the American Revolutionary War, mentions a man who "stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni." The joke Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, British surgeon and author of the song's lyrics, was making was that the Yanks were naive enough to believe that a feather in the hat was a sufficient mark of a macaroni. Whether or not these were alternative lyrics sung in the British army, they were enthusiastically taken up by the Yankees themselves.

I've always assumed it was just nonsense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroni_(fashion)

[Tobus]

Wow, ya learn something every day! I always thought it was nonsense too.

A macaroni (or formerly maccaroni)^[1] in mid-18th century England, was a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion"^[2] in terms of clothes, fastidious eating and gambling. Like a practitioner of macaronic verse, which mixed English and Latin to comic effect, he mixed Continental affectations with his English nature, laying himself open to satire

Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned here, especially for the American who goes a bit too far in emulating Scottish dress and mannerisms, "exceeding the ordinary bounds of fashion". As in, "mixing Highland affectations with his American nature, laying himself open to satire". Would we call him a MacErroney?