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Few capitals in the world are blessed with such rich and varied bird-life as Delhi. While these avian visitors and residents have always fascinated the people of this city, it is during the past few years that birdwatching has become a popular hobby among the young and old alike. In this book, the author profiles over 150 species of birds, inviting readers from all walks of life to join him in uncovering some of the city's most precious avian wonders-be it birds that visit your garden, or those you see in the city's parks and woodlands; the huge rafts of wildfowl and otherwater-birds on the Jamuna and nearby water-bodies, or the mysterious flocks that arrive and depart during the year. Also of use to those interested is information on what each of these birds looks like, where and when they can be found, what they eat, whether or when they breed or visit Delhi, andmore. The book also introduces readers to various birding areas in and around Delhi, and highlights the bird life found there. Familiar areas include the Yamuna, Okhla, Tughlaquabad, the Ridge, the Asola Sanctuary, Sultanpur National Park, Badhkal Lake, as well as some of Delhi's parks and green area: Lodhi Garens, Buddha Jayanti Park, Deer Park, Qudsia Gardens, and the National Zoological Park, to name a few. The 50 color plates in the text comprise photographs of birds encountered by the author in the course of his many birdwatching expeditions. While some photographs capture rare species, others of birds more familiar to us, are no less fascinating.

An encyclopaedia of information on major aspects of Pacific life, including the physical environment, peoples, history, politics, economy, society and culture. The CD-ROM contains hyperlinks between section titles and sections, a library of all the maps in the encyclopaedia, and a photo library.

SOLOMON H. SNYDER Receptor Research Reaches Neurology: Relevance to Neurodegenerative Diseases and Stroke President George Bush has heralded the 1990s as the decade of the brain, based largely on the rapid escalation of advances in the molecular neuro­ sciences and the likelihood that these will bear therapeutic fruit before the turn of the century. There is little doubt that the 1970s and 1980s have witnessed more remarkable advances in the molecular neurosciences than all of the preceding hundred years. Identification of receptor sites for drugs and neurotransmitters along with simple, sensitive, and specific means of monitoring them has made it possible to elucidate the mechanism of action for many known drugs and to identify new chemical entities as potential therapeutic agents. At the same time, the numbers of distinct neurotrans­ mitters have multiplied. Prior to 1970 only the biogenic amines were well accepted as transmitters. The early 1970s witnessed the gradual acceptance ofamino acids as major excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters. Identification of opiate receptors and the subsequent identification of the enkephalins as their endogenous ligands led to an appreciation of peptides as putative transmitters and the accumulation of as many as a hundred neuropeptides by the decade's end. In the 1980s the revolutions of molecular biology have been applied aggressively to the neurosciences with molecular cloning for neuropeptide precursors, many important neurochemical en­ zymes, and receptors for numerous transmitters.