PÁJARO
Pájaro (bird), a town in Monterey County, on the Pájaro River, which rises on the slope of the Coast Range, and flows westerly, falling into Monterey Bay, derives its name from a circumstance told in the diary of the faithful Father Crespi: “We saw in this place a bird, which the Gentiles (unbaptized Indians), had killed and stuffed with straw, and which appeared to some [of the party] to be a royal eagle; it was measured from tip to tip of the wings, and was found to measure eleven palms (nine feet and three inches), for which reason the soldiers called the place El Río del Pájaro.” The scream of the eagle may still be heard in the more remote parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the great birds are occasionally seen circling far over-head, or perched in the tops of the tallest trees.