PUNCTUM PYGM@UM. 159 
frequently found living beneath dead and decaying leaves or adhering 
to fallen branches. 
It is of a timid and irritable disposition, and shrinks within its shell at 
the least alarm or when exposed to bright sunlight. 
M. St. Simon was very successful in taking considerable numbers of this 
minute shell by sweeping, with an entomological gauze net after rain, 
the wet grass and herbage, and it may also be found in some numbers by 
collecting in known localities a quantity of the moist dead leaves, which, 
when dried, allow the shells to be easily separated. 
In North America, Prof. Morse describes their preference for the rotten 
bark of beech trees in the denser woods, and as being not unfrequent in 
the larger species of fungi, such as Boletus and Polyporus. 
Geological Distribution.—?. pygmwum is undoubtedly one of our 
inmost ancient terrestrial species, and the immensity of time it has existed 
has enabled it to extend its range over the whole of the Holarctic realm. 
The Punetum  propygmeum, 
described by Andree from the aS “4 
Miocene beds of Oppeln in Silesia, Ce) @ 
BA 
exhibits only the very slightest 
differences from the recent shells. 
Kic. 217. — Punctum propygmeum Andree, 
Under its own name, P. Pyg- magnified (after Andre). 
mcum has, however, been recorded from various horizons, but not lower 
than the Pliocene beds. 
Lower Priocene.—Cited by M. Arnould Locard from the Lower Plio- 
cene deposits at Hauterive, department of the Drome. 
PLEIstocENE.—In Wilts. 8., it is reported by Mr. Blackmore as found in 
the loess at Fisherton Anger near Salisbury. 
In West Sussex, Mr. J. P. Johnson has found it in the buried river-bed 
deposits exposed at low-tide on the foreshore at West Wittering. 
In West Kent, Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell discovered it in the sandy deposit 
at the reservoir of the Metropolitan Southern Sewer Outfall at Crossness. 
In South Essex, it is recorded from the freshwater marls of Grays by 
Mr. Searles V. Wood, and by Mr. J. P. Johnson from the Uphall Brick- 
yard at Ilford. In North Essex, it is recorded by Kennard and Woodward 
from the freshwater marls of Copford. 
In Cambridge, it has been collected from the gravels at Barnwell Abbey 
by the Rev. E. 8. Dewick. 
In South-east Yorkshire, Mr. ‘I’. Sheppard has recorded it from a dark 
lacustrine marl at Bealsbeck near Market Weighton. 
In Germany, Prof. Sandberger cites the species as not rare in the Lower 
Pleistocene sands of Mosbach, in Baden, and from the tufa of similar age 
at Cannstadt in Thuringia; also as very rare in Valley loess of Lower 
and Middle Pleistocene age at Grotzingen near Durlach, Baden. Dr. Koch 
has also detected it in the lower layers of the loess in the Nheingau, 
Nassau : and Herr Clessin in the alluvium of Pirkleut, Bavaria. 
In France, Mr. I’. Blackmore records it as being found at the base of 
the Upper Pleistocene loess or fluvio-marine sand of Menchecourt, near 
Abbeville, department of the Somme. 
