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SECTION 1 - REVIEW OF EXISTING INFORMATION ON TAXONOMY AND DISTRIBUTION OF GILA SPP. IN THE COLORADO RIVER BASIN TAXONOMIC REFERENCES 1853a. Baird, S.F., and C. Girard. Descriptions of some new fishes from the River Zuni. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 6(1853):368-369. Contains the original descriptions of several Gila spp., including G. robusta (type of the genus), G. elegans, and G. aracilis, currently considered a synonym of robusta (types at USNM). The type locality was assumed by the describors and many subsequent workers to be the Zuni River in New Mexico (thought by the explorers to be a component of the Gila River system but actually a pluvial tributary of the Little Colorado system). Later workers (e.g., Smith et al., 1979), have contested this position, pointing out that, even at the time of the Sitgreaves expedition, the Zuni River was a "tiny rivulet" incapable of supporting populations of the above fishes and thus supposing that the types came from the Little Colorado system later in the venture. However examination of the expedition route and itinerary by myself indicated that the explorers did not reach the lower Little Colorado below a major barrier, Grand Falls, above which at least elegans has probably never occurred. In all probability the type localities for these fishes were in the lower Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona, where these fishes were formerly abundant, collected near the end of the expedition. R.D. Suttkus (per. comm.), of Tulane University, has independently reached the same conclusion. There is no actual reference to collecting these fishes within the expedition reports. 1853b. Baird, S.F., and C. Girard. Fishes; pp. 148-152, in: Sitgreaves, L., Report of an expedition down the Zuni and Colorado rivers. U.S. Senate Exec. Doc. 33rd Congr. (1853). Contains much expanded descriptions of the taxa described in the previous work. 1853c. Baird, S.F., and C. Girard. Descriptions of new species of fishes collected by Mr. John H. Clark on the U.S. and Mexican boundary survey, under Lt. Col. Jas. D. Graham. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 6 (1853):387-390. Contains the original description of Gila emoryi (from lower Gila R.), now considered a synonym of G. elegans, and G.