The Japanese quail is a precocial species, and because of its relatively rapid development, sexual maturation in about 40 days after hatching, and prolific breeding capacity, it promises to become an organism well suited for avian research. One stumbling block has been the inability to induce, with any consistency, parental behavior in laboratory stocks. The study reported herein demonstrates a method for establishing a self-perpetuating population under aeminaturalistic conditions. In addition, given the limitions of finite space, chick mortality appears to have been mostly density dependent, thus indicating that the increase in the size of the population is circumscribed in part by population density.The Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) has been described as an organism well suited for avian research (Padgett & Ivey, 1959;W. O. Wilson, Abbott, & Abplanalp, 1959, 1961. Our laboratory has focused on the imprinting phenomenon for many years (Hess, 1973), and the Japanese quail promises to be an excellent subject for study (Clements & Lien, in press;Kovach, 1974 Kovach, ,1975Ozmon, 1970; Schein & Kimmel, Note 1). It is a precocial species, and because of its relatively rapid development, sexual maturation in about 40 days after hatching, and prolific breeding capacity, it deserves more attention than it has received hitherto from behavioral scientists interested in imprinting. One stumbling block, perhaps unexpected to many investigators, has been the inability to induce parental behavior in laboratory stocks of Japanese quail (Brody, 1970;Rothstein, 1967; Schein, Note 2), which for many generations have been propagated only by artificial incubation. Surely, the Japanese quail species at one time possessed the parental behaviors necessary for its perpetuation.