THE AUK

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF

ORNITHOLOGY

Vo•.. 56 Ju•.Y, 1939 No. 3

IN MEMORIAM: JOHN CHARLES PHILLIPS, M.D.

BY GLOVER M. ALLEN

Plate 8

AT rare intervalsin a lifetime one findsa man who correspondsto one's cherishedideal; who at each contact rings true and clear; who seems,as Marcus Aureliussaid, to 'live with the Gods.' John Phillips was sucha one. Endowedwith high qualitiesof mind and spirit, imbuedwith a keen senseof human responsibilityand a desirefor service,he measuredup to lofty standards. Tall and lithe of figure,with clear-cuthandsome features, and a merrytwinkle in hisdark eyes,he wasa personalityto be remembered for his quiet force,a straightforwardnessthat couldcountenance no sham, and an earnestnessof purposethat without show or apparenteffort ac- complishedgreat things. Bred to wealthand position,he carriedforward the best traditionsof his New Englandheritage. He wasborn in ,, on Novem- ber 5, 1870,the sonof JohnCharles and Anna (Tucker)Phillips; he wasa great-grandsonof JohnPhillips, first ,and a great-nephew of WendellPhillips. He preparedfor collegeat Milton Academyand grad- uated from the Lawrence ScientificSchool of in the Classof 1899, thus continuingthe long line of Harvard graduatesthat his forbearshad created,beginning with SamuelPhillips of the Classof 1050. His seriousinterest led him to enter the ,from which he receivedthe degreeof M.D. in 1904. After graduationhe acted as House Officerat the BostonCity Hospital for two years, thereby gainingfurther experience,but he neverpracticed medicine in a professionalcapacity. On January 11, 1908, he married Miss EleanorHyde of Bath, Maine. Two sonsand two daughters,their children, survive him, as do his wife, two brothers and two sisters. From his youth Dr. Phillips was keenly interestedin outdoorlife, par- ticularlyin hunting,fishing, canoeing, and this soondeveloped into a love 221 Tns AvI•, Von. 56 Pna•cs 8 222 ALLEN,In Memoriam: John Charles Phillips [Auk[July of intelligent travel which often led him in later years to far horizons. Alwayshis journeyshad in view a first-handacquaintance with natural conditionsin distant regions,and the pursuit or observationof wildlife. He appearsto havekept a journalof importantevents from boyhood,and in 1915,he publishedhis 'Boy Journals,1887-1892' in a very smalledition for private distribution. This valuable habit no doubt made easier the frequentpreparation of brief accountsof his observationsand reflections. In variousshorter journeys he visitedmany parts of the westernUnited States and Canada, and in 1900 publisheda short accountof his first bighorn-sheephunt in Wyoming. The region of the present Glacier National Park attracted him long before it was thoughtof as a public reservation,and severalof its prominentgeographic features now bear the nameshe gavethem. In 1896,while still in the midstof his collegecareer, he accompaniedPeary as far as Greenland,on one of the North Polar expeditions. Ten yearslater, we find him with his friend TheodoreLyman, visitingJapan and Korea, with a digressioninto SouthChina to hunt tiger. More seriousexpeditions he undertookin 1912-13 to the Blue Nile valley and the bordersof Abyssinia(now ), and in 1914 to Sinai and Palestine, bringing back important collectionsof birds and mammals whichhe presentedto the Museumof ComparativeZo61ogy. Other travels took him to out of the way cornersof North America: Newfoundland, Alaska,Lower California;he spentpart of a winter in hunting mountain lions and peccariesin the mountainsof Arizona, and in 1938 with Dr. ThomasBarbour, visited and Florida. His last extensiveexpedition wasin 1923-24,when with his wife and son, John, he traveled through Colony,to Ugandaand the easternBelgian Congo, partly with a view to seeingthe African gamefields, with their contrastsof plain and forest. He was the first secretaryof the Harvard Travellers Club, organizedin 1902. It wasmy owngood fortune to haveaccompanied Dr. Phillipson his Blue Nile journey, now well over a quarter of a century ago. The memoriesof that trip, in spite of its many difficulties,still remain an abidingdelight, quite as muchfor the joy of associationwith one of his geniusas for the addedknowledge of this part of the earth. For Dr. Phillips took a keen interestin the thingshe saw,whether his fellowmen, the wild game,or the gloriouscountry. As a campmate his even temper and bright senseof humor helpedto carry over temporarydiscomforts. I well recall our first day out with camels--it was Christmas--andhis amusementat the announcementofour absurd little 'dragoman'George :'Sir, it is verywonder- ful what hashappened to our lunch.' It seemedthat stray dogshad made way with it during the previousevening. Thereafter, the task of provi- sioningwas not left wholly to George. AlthoughDr. Phillipsenjoyed the Vol.1939 56]J Ar.r.rN, In Memoriam:John Charles Phillips ß223 thrill of goodhunting, he caredlittle about the shootingof animalsfor trophies,but preferredthat the gamehe seenredshould be properlypre- served for museumstudy. Followingthe outbreakof the GreatWar, Dr. Phillipsfelt that hismedical knowledgeshould be turned to accountto help his fellowmen, with the result that in November 1915, he joined the SecondHarvard Surgical Corpsfor serviceabroad. He wascommissioned an HonoraryLieutenant in the Royal Army MedicalCorps and assignedto GeneralHospital No. 2 of the BritishExpeditionary Force. On the completionof that servicehe returnedhome, but in September1917, with the entranceof this country into the struggle,he was given a commissionin the United StatesArmy MedicalCorps as First Lieutenant. In Decemberof the sameyear, he was madea Captain,and in May 1918,as Major, hewas appointed Commanding Officerof the 33d Field Hospitalof the Fourth RegularArmy Division. He took part in three importantoffensives in Franceand afterwardwas with the Army of Occupationiri Germany. He returnedto the United Statesin July 1919,after twenty-sixmonths of war service,of whichfour- teenwere spent in Franceand Germany. The wideextent of Dr. Phillips'sinterest in naturalhistory is wellreflected in his publishedwritings, a list of whichhe preparedand issuedin 1933. A glanceat this list with its 169 titles, to whichhe later added35 more, revealsthe progressof his thoughtfrom mattersconcerning hunting and field observationto more seriousstudies of problemsin genetics,with occasionalfaunal and systematicpapers, especially on the ducksand geese, while in later yearsthe difficultiesand needsof conservationbecame in- creasinglymatters of concern.Foremost in his interestwere the waterfowl. On the shoresof WenhamLake, borderinghis beautiful estate,he main- taineda duckingstand where annually he followed the arrivaland departure, the changesand fluctuationsin numbersof the manyducks and geesethat stoppedthere on passage.Shooting was a passionwith him, not only of waterfowlbut alsoof uplandgame. With a well-traineddog, he delighted to tramp the coversfor woodcockor grouse,enjoying quite as muchthe exhilarationof beingin the fieldsand woodsas the thrill of an occasional successfulshot. Alwayshe wasa 'sportsman'in the bestsense, bellevlng in fair playfor the game,moderation in hunting,and careful protection where conditionsshowed the need. Natural resourceshe regardedas a heritage to be enjoyedlegitimately, administered wisely, and handed on to the cominggenerations with the leastimpairment possible. In this, unfortu- nately he often foundhis fellowsportsmen far lessopenminded, a stateof affairsthat frequentlycalled forth from his pen straight-flungwords of warningand protestagainst short-sighted policies. In his bibliography,the first item was a short accountin 'Forestand 224 ALLEN,In Memoriam:John Charles Phillips [July•'Auk

Stream'for 1900of his first hunt for bighornin Wyoming;this wasfollowed by other notesin the samejournal on night-huntingfor Black Duck, the gamevalue of the newlyintroduced pheasants, the gameanimals of Glacier National Park, and noteson the habits of moose. In 1910, appearedhis first article in 'The Auk,' a paper on the autumnalmigration of Canada Geesein Massachusetts,and in succeedingyears there followed other papers on the waterfowl migrations. In these years, too, he carried out several interestingexperiments with the collaborationof ProfessorW. E. Castle in transplantinggerminal tissue in guineapigs,and up to the outbreakof the War, he made a number of valuablestudies on hybridizationin ducks and pheasants.He maintainedfor a numberof yearsa largecollection of living waterfowl,pheasants, and cranesat his Wenhamestate, finding much of scientific as well as esthetic interest in the characteristic behavior and appearanceof thesehandsome birds. With an ever-increasingappreci- ation of the needsof conservation,we findhim from 1915onward, preparing frequentcommunications on suchsubjects as the suggestedintroduction of ibex into our Southwest,the oppositionto the new FederalMigratory Bird Law, propagationof game,the needof sanctuaries,cruelty in sport, the sportsmanand the 'zorphile,'the legitimateuse and encouragementof wild- life resources.His specialinterest in ducksat lengthbore fruit in the pro- ductionof hisfour splendidquarto volumes on 'The Natural History of the Ducks,' 1922-26,in the preparationof whichhis thoroughgoingmethod of work wasevidenced in the employmentof a skilledlinguist for severalyears in the cullingand transcriptionof importantpublished notes from scientific and otherpublications in nearlyevery European language. The expenseof this publicationwith its handsomecolored plates he largelybore himself. His versatilemind appreciatedalso the historicalaspects of naturalhistory, a viewpointthat led him from time to time to publishin bookform a num- ber of valuablerecords that otherwisemight havebeen lost to sight,among these,excerpts from GeorgeWashington's journals concerning the sporting activities of that Great American,the fishingadventures of John Rowe of Bostondrawn from the eighteenth-centurydiaries of that gentleman,the 'ShootingJournal of GeorgeH. Mackay, 1865-1922,' and an accountof shootingstands in easternMassachusetts, to be followedlater by a collec- tion of 'Classicsof the AmericanShooting Field' and othersporting sketches includinga sumptuoussmall volume, his final one,on the historyof Wenham Lake, that came out shortly after his death. Perhapsone of the most valuableof hislater workswas a bibliographyof booksconcerning American gamemammals and birdspublished between 1582 and 1925,a compilation that will prove increasinglyuseful as future workersendeavor to review the past history of thesespecies. In 1930, he publishedin collaboration with F. C. Lincoln,an importantbook on 'AmericanWaterfowl' summing Vol.1939 56]J A•.•.rN,In Memoriam:John Charles Phillips 225 up the presentsituation and speculatingon the outlookfor the future. All this and much more, revealshis intenseconcern in matters pertainingto the welfareof gameanimals and, moreespecially, the alarmingdestruction of natural resourcesin moderntimes and the urgentneed for reforms. He appreciatedgood writing and in hisown works strove to cultivateaccurate expressionwith well-roundedform. In surveyinghis well-chosenlibrary of bookson sportand naturalhistory, he commentedon the ragged-looking shelfof Americanbooks on huntingand explorationin comparisonwith the moresumptuous works of many British writers. A completeaccount of Dr. Philllps'spublic service would be a lengthy chronicle. He was ResearchCurator of Birds in the Museum of Compara- tive Zo51ogy,and at varioustimes made generous gifts of specimensto that institution,including a splendidcollection of hornsand antlersof game mammals,among them a numberof recordheads, which he had brought togetherover many years. He wasa memberof theFaculty of thePeabody Museumin Cambridgesince 1931, and for severalyears was Presidentof the Board of Trusteesof the PeabodyMuseum in Salem. His interestin the BostonSociety of Natural History extendedover a longperiod and he was in recentyears one of its Trustees. He was Chairmanof the former MassachusettsConservation Council and for six years Presidentof the MassachusettsFish and Game Association. He was a founder and for sevenyears, Chairman of the AmericanCommittee for InternationalWild- life Protection; while as 'American Observer,'he attended severalInterna- tional ConservationConferences abroad, thus devoting in the aggregate, a largeportion of hislater effortto the cultivationof a widerappreciation of the meaningand requisitesof 'conservation.'In 1019,he waselected a member of the Boone and Crockett Club, of which he served as Vice- presidentfrom 1028-32,and wasfor a numberof yearsa memberof its editorialboard. He first becamea memberof the AmericanOrnithologists' Union in 1904 and was elected a Fellow in 1025. He was an honored mem- ber of the Nuttall OrnithologicalClub, thoughhe seldomfound it possible to attendits meetings,and at the time of hisdeath was a directorof the National Association of Audubon Societies. Withal Dr. Phillips was an extraordinarilymodest and self-effacing person.He dislikedall appearanceof notoriety,and could only with great dittleultybe persuadedto givea 'paper'or any accountof his work before publicor privategatherings. Yet he wasfearless in the properexpression of hisdisapproval of any perniciouspractice and exerted a stronginfluence in securingthe passageof certainneeded legislation by Congress. In his later yearshe spenthis winterswith kis family at SevenOaks Plantation on John'sIsle, South Carolina,where the milder seasonsplaced lessof a strain on his system,after a winter of illness. He wrote me of 226 ALLr•,In Memoriam:John Charles Phillips [Auk[July canoeingup to a sleepingalligator and of enjoyingthe flowerswhile we in New Englandwere still undersnow. On November14, 1938,he was grouse huntingin southernNew Hampshirewith a friend, whenhe died suddenly of heart failure just as his dogcame to a point and ere the bird flew. Wise, generous,talented, he stroveall his life to give freely of his best,in a high spirit oFservice. For his shiningexample the livesof us all are richer.

(Acknowledgmentsare due to Dr. for his kind per- missionto draw for variousfacts upon his memorialof Dr. Phillips,pri- vately printedin January1939.)