i 9 4 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



from that where the child was last seen by a precipice ; 

 a vulture must have taken it there, either dead or 

 living. But the most striking instance of the child- 

 devouring tendencey of these birds occurred in the 

 Bernese Oberland. A child of three years' old, called 

 Anne Zurbuchen, was taken up to the high alp at 

 haymaking time, and left asleep while the father 

 fetched a load of hay. He returned to find the 

 child gone. At the same time another peasant, called 

 Henri Michel, was coming up the mountain by a 

 rough path when he heard a child cry. At the 

 same time he saw a lammergeier rise and sail away. 

 Running up to the place he found the little girl, 

 unhurt except for wounds in the arm and left 

 hand where the bird had clutched her. She had 

 lost her socks, shoes, and cap while being trans- 

 ported by the bird, the distance traversed being 

 about three hundred and fifty yards. The facts 

 were all entered in the parish archives of the 

 village of Habkeren ; and the girl, who lived 

 to be an old woman, was always known as 

 1 Geier-Anni.' 



The mountain vultures have decreased in numbers, 

 partly because it is the ambition of the Swiss hunters 

 to shoot them, partly because a reward was for many 

 years offered for their destruction. But the retreat 

 of some of the quadruped carnivora, such as the lynx 



