A "herd-book" is a book containing the pedigree and other information of any breed of cattle or pigs, like the "flock-book" for sheep or "stud-book" for horses.
This is the first authentic account we have of the importation of Arab blood, and the Stud-Book says he was the first of that breed ever seen in England.
In his reign, according to the Stud-Book, the Stradling or Lister Turk was brought into England by the duke of Berwick from the siege of Buda.
This was the Byerly Turk, of whom nothing more is known than that - to use the words of the first volume of the Stud-Book - he was Captain Byerly's charger in Ireland in King William's wars.
There is not the least doubt that many of the animals named in the Stud-Book were foaled much earlier than the above dates, but we have no particulars as to time; and after all it is not of much consequence.