Beginning in 2004, various ornithologists have recommended that it would be clearer to use "spurfowl" for all members of the genus Pternistis and restrict the use of "francolin" to the other species presently or formerly classified in Francolinus.

[1] Francolins are terrestrial (though not flightless) birds that feed on insects, vegetable matter and seeds.

Most of the members have a hooked upper beak, well-suited for digging at the bases of grass tussocks and rootballs.

For example, the distribution of the Orange River francolin (Scleroptila levaillantoides) is highly disjunct, leading some authorities to split the northern taxa (from Kenya and northwards) into a separate species, the acacia/Archer's francolin (S. gutturalis, with subspecies lorti), while maintaining the southern taxa (from Angola and southwards) in the Orange River francolin.

[2] A Molecular Phylogeny of the Pheasants and Partridges Suggests That These Lineages Are Not Monophyletic R. T. Kimball,* E. L. Braun,*,† P. W. Zwartjes,* T. M. Crowe,‡,§ and J. D. Ligon*