Nora,
A family group of killer whales is called a "pod". They live
either in family groups or as lone individuals.

Re. the Olivella...I think I have some like you describe from Barkley
Sound or Long Beach...I'll have a look...

Peter.



>On seeing things that "shouldn't be there"
>A word of advice I once received on bird-watching.... don't be a slave to the
>range-maps in a bird guide - pay more attention to the bird itself.  You would
>be surprised how many birds are not found within their usual range.  I suspect
>that more would be found if more people trusted their eyes and not a book that
>might be out of date or just plain wrong.  Some birds ranges change even in our
>lifetimes - blue jays were rare here in Calgary a decade ago and now they are
>common.
>A few years ago a herd (band?) of killer whales was located in the Caribbean
>near Belize.  Hard to confuse them with anything else - I guess they forgot to
>ask permission from us to go there ; - )
>NOW FOR MY SHELL-RELATED QUESTION ( to put the above into practice):
>I have been very studiously IDing my BC-collected shells (thanks Peter for the
>lead on the Kozloff book- couldn't have got so far without it) -
>I picked up many dead small olivellas in beach-drift that must be either
>Olivella baetica or Olivella pycna.  I also collected the much larger O.
>biplicata in the same spot. O. pycna is not supposed to be anywhere this far
>north but the description matches Kozloff's in "Invertebrates of the
Pacific NW"
>and Abbott's in "American Seashell's exactly right down to the width/height
>ratios and the zigzag lines.  Am I right?  Or must it be baetica in spite
of the
>differing description?
>
>Nora
>Calgary, Alberta
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Peter Egerton, Vancouver, Canada
Collector of worldwide Mollusca
http://www.intergate.bc.ca/personal/seashell/index.html
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