Perdicinae is a subfamily of birds in the
pheasant family,
Phasianidae, regrouping the
partridges,
Old World quails, and
francolins. Although this subfamily was considered
monophyletic and separated from the
pheasants,
tragopans,
junglefowls, and
peafowls (Phasianinae) till the early 1990's,
molecular phylogenies have shown that these two subfamilies actually constitute only one lineage. For example, some
partridges (
Perdix genus) are more closely affiliated to
pheasants, whereas
Old World quails and
partridges from the
Alectoris genus are closer to
junglefowls.