The Birds was first published in a collection of Daphne du Maurier’s short stories called The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories (Gollancz, 1952). Illustrator, writer and professor Virgil Burnett (1928-2012) was commissioned to create a number of Penguin Books covers in the 1960s, including this one. The Virgil Burnett Collection is at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections.