The stone partridge was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

For instance, in Dutch the species is rotspatrijs, in German - Felsenhenne, in French - poulette de roche - all literal translations of "rock partridge".

The head, neck, and chest are paler brown and have broad cream edging to the feathers that gives the bird a scaled appearance.

Eggs are pale pink, fading to cream; juveniles are dark chocolate-brown throughout, moulting into adult plumage at several weeks old.

Widespread and common throughout its large range, the stone partridge is evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.