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. [Illustration: PLATE IV. FIG. 1.--RANGE CONDITIONS FAVORING KANGAROO RATS. View on higher portion of Range Reserve, showing type of country where _Dipodomys s. spectabilis_ is most abundant. Good growth of grama and needle grasses in October, following summer growth and before grazing off by cattle and rodents.] [Illustration: PLATE IV. FIG. 2.--RANGE CONDITIONS LESS FAVORABLE TO KANGAROO RATS. View on lower portion of Range Reserve, where _Dipodomys s. spectabilis_ is less abundant. Vegetation consists principally of _Lycium_, mesquite, rabbit brush, and cactus, there being very little grass.] HABITS. EVIDENCE OF PRESENCE. MOUNDS.