16 BRITISH BIRDS. 



The idiot appeared to be full of delight, and the 

 dumb child greatly alarmed and terrified ; but in vain 

 did the parent, in her anguish, endeavour to ascertain 

 what had befallen her lost babe. Again and again did 

 she observe the movements of her two children : the 

 dumb boy appeared almost bereft of his senses, while 

 the idiot danced about, laughed, and seemed by his ges- 

 ticulations to imitate the action of one who had caught 

 up something of which he was fond, and hugged it to 

 his heart ; but no solution of the mystery was given by 

 the antics of the one, or the fright of the other. One 

 slight consolation, however, arose — it was in the thought 

 that some acquaintance had fallen in with the children, 

 and taken away the infant ; but the day and night wore 

 away without any tidings of its state. 



On the morrow the parents renewed their search, 

 when, as an eagle was seen to fly over their heads, the 

 antics of the idiot were resumed, and the dumb boy 

 clung to his father, and shrieked aloud with anguish and 

 terror. Now the fearful fact burst on their minds, that 

 the infant had been carried off by some bird of prey, 

 and that the half-witted child was delighted at the re- 

 moval of one of whom he was jealous : and so it proved. 

 On the morning of their loss, an Alpine hunter had 

 been watching near an eagle's nest, in the hope of shoot- 



