65 under Celtis, 11 under Lycium, 31 in the open, 1 about a “cholla” cactus (Opuntia spinosior), and 1 about a prickly pear (Opuntia sp.).  There is apparently no strongly marked preference for any single species of plant.  While both desert hackberry and the cat’s-claws afford a better protection than mesquite—­since cattle more often seek shade under the latter, and in so doing frequently trample the mounds severely—­it appears that the general protection of a tree or shrub of some sort is sought by kangaroo rats, rather than the specific protection of the thickest or thorniest species.

The following records indicate particular habitat preferences of spectabilis as noted at different points in its range: 

Occurs on open bare knolls exposed to winds, also on gravelly places at lower edge of foothills (Franklin Mountains, Tex., Gaut); here and there over the barest and hardest of the gravelly mesas (Bailey, Tex., 1905, 147); on open creosote-bush and giant-cactus desert (Tucson, Ariz., Vorhies and Taylor); on firm, gravelly, or even rocky soil on the grassy bajada land along the northwest base of the mountains, either in the open or under Celtis, Prosopis, Lycium, Acacia greggii, or other brush (Santa Rita Mountains, Ariz., Vorhies and Taylor); mounds usually thrown up around a bunch of cactus or mesquite brush (Magdalena, Sonora, Bailey); in heavy soil (Ajo, Ariz., A. B. Howell); loamy soil (Gunsight, Ariz., A. B. Howell); in mesa where not too stony (Magdalena, Sonora, Bailey); grassy plain (Gallego, Chihuahua, Nelson); in open valley and high open plains (Santa Rosa, N. Mex., Bailey); in grassy and weed-grown parks among the larger junipers, pinyons, and scattering yellow pines (Bear Spring Mountains, N. Mex., Hollister); on sand-dune strip (east side of Pecos River, 15 miles northeast of Roswell, N. Mex., Bailey); among Ephedra patches (San Juan Valley, N. Mex., Birdseye); in open sandy soil along dry wash (Rio Alamosa, N. Mex., Goldman); on sides and crests of bare, stony hills (Mesa Jumanes, N. Mex., Gaut); in open, arid part of the valley and stony mesas (Carlsbad and Pecos Valley, N. Mex., Bailey); about the edges of the plains of San Augustine and the foothills of the Datil and Gallina Mountains, and in the Transition Zone yellow-pine forest of the Gallina Mountains (Datil region, N. Mex., Hollister); on hard limy ridges (Monahans, Tex., Cary).

A. Brazier Howell notes that spectabilis occurs in harder soil than does deserti.  This observation is confirmed by others, and seems to afford a conspicuous habitat difference between the two, for deserti is typically an animal of the shifting aeolian sands.

Usually, as on the Range Reserve, the rodents are widely distributed over a considerable area.  Occasionally, as in the vicinity of Rio Alamosa, N. Mex., as reported by Goldman, they occur only in small colonies.