He published over two hundred books and articles about animal breeding, sport hunting, ornithology, wildlife conservation, faunal surveys and systematic reviews, and Mendelian genetics.

[1] Phillips prepared for college at Milton Academy and graduated from the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University in 1899 with a Bachelor of Science.

[1] On November 14, 1938, Phillips was grouse hunting with a friend in southern New Hampshire (near Exeter) where suffered heart failure and passed away.

Ten years later, he and his friend Theodore Lyman (1874-1954) visited Japan and its colony Chōsen with a foray into the south of China to hunt tigers.

[2] Further excursions, which he undertook together with Glover Morrill Allen (1879-1942), were in the valley of the Blue Nile and the border of Ethiopia between 1912 and 1913, as well as the Sinai Peninsula and Palestine in 1914.

His last long journey took him to Kenya via Uganda and the east of the Belgian Congo with his wife and son John in the years 1923–1924 to hunt African game in its natural habitat.

While the first publications were marked by hunting and outdoor observations, he later shifted his interest to studies on genetic issues in wild animals, as well as species protection and environmentalism.