#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use feature 'say';

my @original = qw(a b c d);

my ( $first_item, @the_rest ) = @original;
say "First item: $first_item";
say "The rest: @the_rest";

my ( @array_first_bad, $last_item ) = @original;
say "Array first is bad: @array_first_bad";
say "Last item: $last_item";

__END__
First item: a
The rest: b c d
Array first is bad: a b c d
Last item: 
Use of uninitialized value $last_item in concatenation (.) or string at line 16.