322 Wild Lifein a Southern County. 
family. This statement seems to me to be most in- 
teresting if compared with the habits of birds that 
roam hither and thither apparently without order or 
method, that come back in the spring to particular 
places, and depart again after their young are reared. 
Though to us they wander aimlessly, it is possible that 
from their point of view they may be following strictly 
presctibed routes sanctioned by immemorial custom. 
And so itinerant labourers move about. In the 
particular district which has been described their 
motions are roughly these :—In the early spring they 
go up on the uplands, where there are many thousand 
acres of arable land, for the hoeing. Then comes a 
short space of employment—haymaking in the water- 
meadows that follow the course of the rivers there, 
and which are cut very early. Next, they return 
down into the vale, where the haymaking has then 
commenced. Just before it begins the Irish arrive in 
small parties, coming all the way from their native 
land to gather the high wages paid during the 
English harvest-time. They show a pleasing attach- 
ment to the employer who has once given them work 
and treated them with a little kindness. Tohim they 
go first; and thus it often happens that the same 
band of Irish return to the same farm year after year 
as regularly as the cuckoo. They lodge in an open 
shed, making a fire in the corner of the hedge where 
it is sheltered. They are industrious, work well, drink 
ittle, and bear generally a good character. 
