First, such articles are quite often complete fabrications. Usually the guilty party is a contemporary who is either a) a hoaxer motivated by the same personality quirks that move vandals, anarchists or hackers to act; or b) badly misguided fans of cryptozoology who believe so deeply in the field that s/he creates the “proof” in a supposedly old news article. I’ll be surprised if the newspapers themselves ever existed, much less the reporters or the stories in question.

Second, until well into the 20th-century it was not uncommon for paper owners, editors or reporters to feel no compunction whatever about creating “news” about a completely fictitious event, particularly about fanciful or legendary subjects. Such stories sold papers. It is for this reason that I cringe when I see yet another researcher into the paranormal/cryptids/UFOs trot out “news articles” from the early 20th century (or even earlier) about supposed discoveries by an intrepid explorer of, for example, rich tombs of giants in hidden caves, gargantuan sea serpents, hundreds of fairies, etc. Such stories are very fragile and leaky vessels in which to carry our hopes of proof.

As to the content of the stories, it is beyond dispute that for a couple of hundred years at least, and probably much longer, European folktales have existed about giant birds snatching small children. As the tales go, the rescue teams assembled from villagers could find no trace of the poor children, until years later when a “woodsman” or “mountaineer” stumbled upon a great aerie in a hidden cleft in which was found some small human bones, a single child’s shoe and a tiny, torn dress, etc., etc.

I wouldn’t put too much hope in these, even if they could be tracked down.