Possible Clues:

• Like some titmice
• Express annoyance over function of writer having bunched up grass
• Grown in dense clumps
• A — duck has a long black crest
• Sporting a feathery crest
• Bunched, as feathers
• Like a lynx's ears
• Growing in small dense clumps
• Like many a chesterfield sofa
• Like short-eared owls