The food of _V. bengalensis_ consists largely of diatoms, the siliceous shells of which often form the greater part of its excreta. Minute particles of silt are sometimes retained in the gizzard, being apparently swallowed by accident. There are still many points to be elucidated as regards the production and development of the resting buds in _V. bengalensis_, but two facts are now quite clear as regards them: firstly, that these buds are produced at the approach of the hot weather and germinate in November or December; and secondly, that the whole zoarium may be transformed at the former season into a layer of resting buds closely pressed together but sometimes exhibiting in their arrangement the typical cruciform formation. Resting buds may often be found in vigorous colonies as late as the beginning of December; these buds have not been recently formed but have persisted since the previous spring and have not yet germinated. Sometimes only one or two buds are formed at the base of an existing zooecium (fig. 37 _a_), but apparently it is possible not only for a zooecium to be transformed into a resting bud but for it to produce four other buds round its base before undergoing the change. Young polypides are formed inside the buds and a single zooecium sprouts out of each, as a rule by the growth of one of the basal projections, when conditions are favourable. Polypides of _V. bengalensis_ are often transformed into brown bodies. When this occurs the orifice closes together, with the collar expanded outside the zooecium. I have occasionally noticed that the ectocyst of such zooecia was distinctly thicker and darker in colour than that of normal zooecia. Eggs and spermatozoa are produced in great numbers, as a rule simultaneously in the same zooecia, but individuals kept in captivity often produce spermatozoa only. The eggs are small and are set free as eggs. Nothing is known as regards their development. Polypides are as a rule found in an active condition only in the cold weather, but I have on one occasion seen them in this condition in August, in a small zoarium attached to a shell of _Melania tuberculata_ taken in a canal of brackish water near Calcutta. Family HISLOPIIDÆ. HISLOPIDÉES, Jullien, Bull. Soc. zool. France, x, p. 180 (1885). HISLOPIIDÆ, Annandale, Rec. Ind. Mus. i, p. 200 (1907). _Zoarium_ recumbent, often forming an almost uniform layer on solid subjects. _Zooecia_ flattened, adherent; the orifice dorsal, either surrounded by a chitinous rim or situated at the tip of an erect chitinous tubule; no parietal muscles. _Polypide_ with an ample gizzard which possesses a uniform chitinous lining and does not close together when the polypide is retracted. _Resting bud_, not produced.