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Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
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Transcription
California Condor
Eben McMillan
28 may 1964
smelling up the Country. He then told Warden Reed and I that
the Law had to be enforced if it was to mean anything so
for us to go ahead and toss Binkley in jail if there was
no other way for us to handle the case.
As we finished talking to Mr. Bailey, Mr. Leake and
Lee King drove up in a red pickup. Warden Reed asked
them if they saw Binkley shoot at the Condor. Mr. Leake
said he heard the shot, saw the Condor dive downward,
then fly on out to the south, out of sight behind the ridge,
but that he did not see a leg hanging down on the
bird even though he heard me mention that the Condor
had a leg hanging down. Mr. Leake thought I could see
the broken leg better with the binoculars.
Warden Reed and I then drove to the trailer-house home
of Howard Binkley that was located about 150 yards
down south of the barn at Ranch Headquarters. Mr. Binkley
came out of his Trailer house and readily admitted to
Warden Reed that he had shot at the Condor. In
answer to Warden Reed's question of why did he do it, Mr.
Binkley shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know." Mr.
Reed then asked him if he did not know it was against the
Law to shoot Condor. Binkley said that he thought the bird
was a Buzzard. Whereupon he was told by Warden Reed that
Buzzards were also protected by law, that no large bird
can be shot without breaking the Law excepting a horned
Owl. Binkley did not know this to be the case. Warden
Reed then issued Howard Binkley a citation to -