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80 <br />fishes with fine scales ( <100 in the lateral line), posi- <br />tive identification is difficult in the field. The fish <br />mentioned by Wiltzius were probably bluehead X longnose <br />sucker hybrids. <br />The abundance of the white sucker hybrids with both <br />bluehead and flannelmouth suckers at the upper stations on <br />the Yampa River is probably attributable to 1) success of <br />the introduced white sucker, 2) river channel alterations, <br />and 3) flow reductions due to agricultural and municipal <br />demands. <br />White suckers were most abundant at Station Y-2, as <br />were their hybrids with the indigenous suckers. River chan- <br />nel alterations near Craig, Colorado, were numerous. Also, <br />pump and gravity irrigation diversions during spring and <br />summer typically caused downstream segments to be temporarily <br />dewatered and resupplied with return-flow water from an up- <br />stream application. Such waters are often warmer and more <br />saline than waters which have not been diverted. <br />The stream alteration effort at Station Y-2 left little <br />quiet pool area during high-water periods. The unprotected, <br />open stream channel was probably not a suitable spawning <br />site. Spawning fish were found crowded in an artificial <br />diversion loop in early June, 1976. This concentrated as- <br />sociation of white and bluehead suckers, both in spawning <br />condition, probably resulted in many of the lentic conditions <br />described by Ilubbs et al <br />(1943) which favor extensive <br />hybridization.