Below a braided silk band, each necklace is composed of dozens of overlapping, vividly handpainted, five-inch turkey feathers set above a flounce of natural peahen or rooster feathers ($500 to $5,000).

Well then," Aufors went on, "the child will wear a cap with bits of dark horse hair thrust in around the edges and rooster feathers on the cradle board.

The art comes in turning a humble rooster feather into something more exotic with dying and stenciling, making the apparent use of birds of paradise feathers in fact a faked effect.

One elderly woman who had been helped to her seat in front, dead center, wears a man's black straw hat adorned with a rooster feather.

At Green Leaves in Natchez, a small legion of more than 100 teddy bears dating back to 1905 decorate the base of a 60-year-old Christmas tree, whose limbs are wound in rooster feathers, painted green.

His black hair stood up like rooster feathers.

The leader of the troop wore an orna- mental helm with a cluster of green rooster feathers in it.

The rooster feathers were bobbing away, getting ahead of her, their owner making a faster pace than she dared.

He is usually seen wearing his trademark sunglasses and a Charlie One Horse cowboy hat, with a large snakeskin hat band and a plume of rooster feathers at the front.

We tried the rooster feathers in the crown one evening, but the shafts of the feathers were too thin for the sockets, so the feathers sprawled in all directions.