20 INTRODUCTION. 



horse, called Tamerlane, whose pedigree I have not been 

 able to find ; but, from the quality of the mares bred to him, 

 and the character of their owners, I have no doubt he was 

 thoroughbred. A few cases of his cross occur, as well as 

 two or three others in the same category, and as a matter 

 of course these animals cannot be extended. In the pedi- 

 grees of imported animals, great care has been taken to give 

 them correctly from the British Stud- Book. The very 

 shallow device of adding " &c., &c." to short and doubtful 

 pedigrees has been practiced so long, and sometimes by the 

 undesigning, that the character itself, innocent though it 

 be, has become a stench with honest men as applied to 

 pedigrees, and it is believed it will not be found from 

 beginning to end of this volume. 



AN EVIL AND THE CORRECTION. 



Much of the confusion that has pervaded American pedi- 

 grees has arisen from the habit of writing from memory. 

 In every generation and district there have been some men 

 who were looked upon as oracles on the blood of all the 

 horses in a large extent of country, and these men were 

 called upon to give pedigrees, oftentimes, which they did 

 entirely from memory. They were generally skilled in 

 local horse history, and were blessed with excellent reten- 

 tive powers, but they were very apt to omit or add or 

 change one or more crosses, and these errors were propa- 

 gated. Hence the great number of differences, often of 

 minor importance, but still differences that should have 

 been avoided. It is believed this system of adding a num- 

 ber to every horse, which becomes a part of his designa- 

 tion, will effectually break up this evil, and cause every 



