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. M