Changing Fish Fauna of the Southwest 375
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<br />
<br />Between 1890 and 1895 the woundfin, Plagopterus argentissimus
<br />Cope (Miller and Hubbs, 1960), was present in the Gila River at its
<br />mouth (Gilbert and Scofield, 1898, p. 496). Other species listed in
<br />Table I that were taken only in the lower Gila include the desert pup-
<br />fish, Cyprinodon macularius Baird and Girard, and the Gila top-
<br />minnow, Poeciliopsis occidentalis (Baird and Girard). That the habi-
<br />tat in the lower Gila River was very favorable for these quiet-water
<br />species is indicated in the report by Antisell (1857, p. 133), which
<br />describes how the river spread broadly and was in places swampy
<br />and overgrown with willows. The appearance of the euryhaline
<br />striped mullet, Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, around 1934-35, and of the
<br />machete or ten-pounder, Elops affinis Regan, in 1941 (Glidden, 1941),
<br />is plausibly attributed to the disappearance of the predatory Colorado
<br />squawfish and likely also to other ecological changes, such as the ad-
<br />vent of clear water and a relatively stable flow. A number of the
<br />exotic species represent intentional introductions or bait releases
<br />(Miller, 1952,• Hubbs, 1954; Kimsey, Hagy, and McCammon, 1957;
<br />Shapovalov, Dill, and Cordone, 1959, p. 166), and still other intro-
<br />duced forms may now occur in the Colorado around Yuma (Beland,
<br />1953b; St. Amant,1959). The recent record (Hubbs,1953) of Eleotris
<br />picta Kner and Steindachner from a canal spillway north of Yuma
<br />is not included in the tabulation since this specimen obviously repre-
<br />sents a rare straggler; the species has not been taken from the Colo-
<br />rado River, and there have been no subsequent records from the lower
<br />Colorado River basin.
<br />BAN PEDBO RIVER (TABLE II)
<br />In 1846 the Colorado squawfish was reported to have run up the
<br />San Pedro River to about Fairbank (Fig. 1), and remains of this
<br />species have been recovered from an archaeological site along this
<br />river at nearby Quiburi (Miller, 1955, pp. 133-134) ; the trash heap
<br />containing the fishbones was dated as A.D. 1704-63. Humpback suck-
<br />ers also once inhabited the San Pedro for they were reported by
<br />Chamberlain to have been marketed at Tombstone as "buffalo,"
<br />probably prior to the 1880's (Miller, 1955, p. 134). The desert pupfish,
<br />described from the San Pedro River near Benson, evidently inhabited
<br />the then marshy canyon just below (Leopold, 1951, p. 310), but has
<br />not since been collected from the Arizona part of that river. The
<br />species was taken, however, 100 years after its original capture, in
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