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During much of the 20thCentury, partridge/quail-like, Afro-Asian phasianine birds referred to commonly as African spurfowls, francolins and/or partridges had a tortuous taxonomic history. Because of striking autapomorphic differences in plumage, vocalizations and ecology in some of these taxa, as many as nine genera and nearly 200 clinal and/or idiosyncratic subspecies, embedded within a polyphyletic Perdicinae, were recognized. In 1963, two clades, 28 ‘francolin’ and ‘spurfowl’ species (fisantein Afrikaans) and 13 Afro-Asiatic ‘francolins’ and ‘partridges’ (patrysein Afrikaans), were combined into a single genus (Francolinus) – the largest within the Galliformes – comprising about 100 subspecies. Furthermore,fisanteandpatrysewere partitioned into several unnamed “Groups” and four “Unplaced” species. Here, we use morphological, behavioural and DNA evidence to produce: a comprehensive revision of the taxonomy and phylogeny of thefisanteclade; a stable classification system for tis component taxa; and hypotheses vis-à-vis eco-biogeographical processes that promoted their speciation and cladogenesis. We shiftFrancolinusspp. sensu stricto (members of the Spotted Group) and the Unplaced ‘Francolinus’ gularisfrom thefisanteclade to thepatryse[discussed in Mandiwana-Neudani et al., in review]. An Unplacedfisant, ‘F.’ nahani, is linked withPtilopachus petrosus(another African endemic ‘partridge‘) within the Odontophoridae (New World ‘Quails‘). We recognize 25 species of fisante (hereafter spurfowls), including seven with subspecies. They comprise 34 terminal taxa placed within a single genus,Pternistis, sister toAmmoperdixandPerdiculaspp.,Coturnix‘quails’ andAlectoris‘partridges‘, within the now monophyletic Coturnicinae. Only one of four putative Groups of spurfowls, the Bare-throated Group, is monophyletic. The other three Groups (Montane, Scaly and Vermiculated) are para- or polyphyletic. Several species pairs of spurfowls, most notablyP. aferandcranchii, hybridize in para/sympatry. One Bare-throated spurfowl,P. rufopictus, may be the product of stabilized hybridization betweenP. aferand/orcranchiiandP. leucoscepus.

Phylogenetic analysis based on osteological characters of some Neogene and Recent phasianids is performed. Phylogenetic tree shows close relationships of Plioperdix with Ammoperdix and Tologuica with Excalfactoria. Chauvireria is at the base of the clade (Alectoris + (Coturnix + (Excalfactoria + Tologuica))). Palaeoperdix is relatively close to the lineage of large pheasants.

Galliform birds (relatives of the chicken and turkey) have attracted substantial attention due to their importance to society and value as model systems. This makes understanding the evolutionary history of Galliformes, especially the species-rich family Phasianidae, particularly interesting and important for comparative studies in this group. Previous studies have differed in their conclusions regarding galliform phylogeny. Some of these studies have suggested that specific clades within this order underwent rapid radiations, potentially leading to the observed difficulty in resolving their phylogenetic relationships. Here we presented analyses of six nuclear intron sequences and two mitochondrial regions, an amount of sequence data larger than many previous studies, and expanded taxon sampling by collecting data from 88 galliform species and four anseriform outgroups. Our results corroborated recent studies describing relationships among the major families, and provided further evidence that the traditional division of the largest family, the Phasianidae into two major groups (“pheasants” and “partridges”) is not valid. Within the Phasianidae, relationships among many genera have varied among studies and there has been little consensus for the placement of many taxa. Using this large dataset, with substantial sampling within the Phasianidae, we obtained strong bootstrap support to confirm some previously hypothesized relationships and we were able to exclude others. In addition, we added the first nuclear sequence data for the partridge and quail genera Ammoperdix, Caloperdix, Excalfactoria, and Margaroperdix, placing these taxa in the galliform tree of life with confidence. Despite the novel insights obtained by combining increased sampling of taxa and loci, our results suggest that additional data collection will be necessary to solve the remaining uncertainties.

The haemoproteids of the avian family Phasianidae are reviewed. Haemoproteus lophortyx O'Roke, 1929 and H. rileyi Malkani, 1936 of the Phasianinae and H. pratasi Tendeiro, 1947 of the Numidinae are redescribed. Four species of haemoproteids from the Phasianinae (H. chukari Tartakovskii, 1913, H. coturnix Musaev &Zeiniev, 1977, H. perdix Musaev &Zeiniev, 1977, and H. gallinarum Yakunin &Zhazyltaev, 1977) are considered nomina nuda; H. santosdiasi Son, 1960, H. chapini van den Berghe et al., 1958, H. bambusicolae Manwell et al., 1976, and H. ammoperdix Subkhonov, 1980 are considered synonyms of H. rileyi. Haemoproteus silvai Son, 1960 is considered a synonym of H. pratasi of the Numidinae while H. balfouri Sambon, 1909 is designated a nomen nudum. Haemoproteus canachites Fallis &Bennett, 1960 and H. rotundus Oliger, 1956 are considered synonyms of H. mansoni Castellani &Chalmers, 1910, while H. stableri White &Bennett, 1979 is the other valid haemoproteid of the Tetraoninae. Haemoproteus meleagridis Levine, 1961 is the only species described from the Meleagridinae. The 18 species of haemoproteids of four subfamilies of the Phasianidae are now reduced to 6 species.