Tehachapi 12.208 California Condor Eben McMillan 26 July 1963 up and had breakfast by sunrise. The plume of smoke, or dust, rising from the smoke-stacks of Monolith Cement Plant at Northeast end of Tehachapi Valley was still moving out Eastward behind the stiff West gale. That blew all night but showed signs of letting up as the morning progressed. I drove to Tehachapi about 7:00 A.m. and found Sam Cuddabeck and an Indian named Jerry Scott panning dirt they had taken from a Prospect hole somewhere yesterday. The pan had a good showing of cinnabar ore. Sam asked had I seen Jim Davis, and had he remembered the year they saw the Condor alight in the evening, on the rocky section out one mile South of town. When he was told that Jim couldn't only not remember the year but that he could not remember ever having seen the Condor, Sam said this was funny, and he re-told me the story and to the best of my meteor memory I repeated it word for word. I am quite impressed with Sam's observing capacity. He tells me there used to be three kind of carrion birds - The Buzzard, which he describes perfectly; then the Vulture; this vulture is between the Buzzard and the Condor and has the white spot in the wing. This vulture of Sam's, I would think is a young Golden Eagle. Then the Condor; Sam thinks the size is enough to distinguish this bird. Observing - Sonic Booms Sam Cuddabeck wondered about sonic booms also. He told about a lady who lived near the railroad track at Lucdon who used to get a neighbor lady who lived some distance from the railroad to hatch her chicken eggs for her. The noise and the shaking of the West was held the reason why those eggs would not hatch so close to the railroad. Jerry Scott said the same about a lady who lived near a mine where much blasting,