The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-02-24
BUzzARD AND WOoDOHUOK.
The Line of Their Habitat Closely
Drawn in Pennsylvanfa.

The slow-sailing turkey buzzard and the
burrowing woodchuck are creatures
that haunt every Chester county farm.
The ~visitations of the former are en-
couraged, those of the latter made sub
ject for imprecation, and meanwhile both
increase and multiply. Up in Bucks
county, not more than thirty miles dis
tant from Chester, the buzzard and the
woodchuck are comparatively unknown,
and the farmer goes about his business
from one years end to the other without
a glimpse of either, so hard and fast are
the lines which restrict their habitats.
About two years ago a woodcliuck did
stray into Bucks from somewhere and
was caught by a farmer named Detweiler
living a few miles north of Doylestown.
Its captor could not name 1T; neither could
his ~neighbors. Getting an idea that the
little animal was of some, rare species,
Detwe1ier took it to the express office to
send it to the Zoo. He was saved the
trouble by a man familiar with wood
chucks, who happened to see it in the
box ready for shipment.
Buzzards are seen somewhat more fire.
qaently, especially in the lower end of the
county. They never, however, appear in
any numbers. The carrion they crave is
seldom left unburied, and there is nothing
to attract them. The ground as a rule is
level, not affording the deserted. rocky
spots in which they build their nests. 1t
IS a rare thing to see one of the big birds
IN us smooth, graceful flight, and still
rarer to find one that has alighted.
Not many miles to the south is the Dor
der line, beyond which the buzzards. are
so common that they attract no atten-
ton: That they do not drift over Is re-
M q 1E0 H. ~ eri A.
often do fly q couple of hundred miles in
a day.. The Chester county farmer and
his neighbor in Delaware county accept
their presence as a matter of course, and
doing scavenger duty. The horse, COW or
pig that dies on the farm is hauled out
into a field, where in a few days only a
skeleton Is left to show that the buzzards
have performed their Office. Flocks of sew
eral hundred join in the feast on a single
animal, and when stuffed to repletion stay
lazfly around in the vicinity for the best
part of a week until the effects of their
gluttony wear off. However repulsive they
may appear they are not disturbed. for
their services are really valuable, and peo-
pie see to it that the law which protects
them is rigidly enforced.
The scent, eyesight or instinct, what
ever it may be, that draws them to the
place where carrion is exposed, is won
derfully developed. Within an hour or
two from the time when a body is put
out. though there may not then be a
buzzard in sight, they appear from all
directions, circling round and round, and
gradually drawing nearer. They never
hurry, but settle slowly down ON the
spoik To those first arrived others are
constantly added. until the carcass is no
more.
The other habitue of Chester county.
the woodchuck. seems out of place there.
His family is seldom encountered so far
south except in mountainous districts.
but the big hills in Chester give him a
refuge. As the soil is cultivated he gains
a firmer hold, and revels in the clover
fields. Attempts to drive him out are
fruitIess, for he glides into his burrow
at the mere suspicion of danger. In the
country between Chester and Northamp-
ton counties he is little known, but north
ward from the upper Delaware hills his
domain extends Into and throughout New
Observation-Disclosures Record.