With feet planted and breast pitched forward, Napachie Sharky's Bird in Protective Posture, Calling Out throws its head back, opens its beak in a piercing call, and flares its wings to a startling span. Scarcely a quarter-inch thick, the wings stretch to more than twice the carving's height. It takes a learned hand to judge the tensile strength of the stone and test its limits without exceeding them, something Napachie Sharky understood exceptionally well. A modern master of the medium, the artist was especially adept at capturing birds in all manner of poses. This particular posture has its parallel in the wild: a bird made bigger by its wings and louder by its call, defending a nest or its young, or facing down a territorial rival.

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