Night Sky (Visual Imagery)
The narrator describes the evening: "The night was very still. There was a thin yellow moon over the trees on the hill, and the sky was filled with stars. Then Mr Gregg heard the noise of wings flying low over his head and he saw the four ducks, dark against the night sky, flying very close together." She uses the visual imagery of the moonlight, stars, and ducks to emphasize the sad ending of the day. With the ducks flying against this striking backdrop, Mr Gregg is not able to ignore them, as they disrupt his image of a peaceful nightfall.
Gunfire (Auditory Imagery)
The narrator depicts the harsh noise of the guns in the following manner: "BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! went the guns." This auditory imagery creates a strong impression of the unsettling disruption the guns cause in an otherwise quiet forest.
Magic Finger (Haptic Imagery)
The narrator says that when she uses her magic finger, she first experiences the following feeling: "I get very, very hot all over... Then the tip of the forefinger of my right hand begins to tingle most terribly..." This haptic imagery gives a vivid sense of the strange sensations she gets before using her powers.
Barley (Olfactory Imagery)
When the narrator comes back to the Greggs' farm she sees the following scene: "And in the middle of the yard stood Philip and William, with a sack of their father's best barley beside them. They were surrounded by ducks, doves, pigeons, sparrows, robins, larks and many other kinds that I did not know, and the birds were eating the barley that the boys were scattering by the handful." While the scent of the barley is not described directly, the mention of it being the "best barley" and drawing in a crowd of birds implies that it tastes very good. This olfactory imagery works to show the new lengths to which the Gregg boys go to befriend the birds in their neighborhood.
