You are right, it is a method call. The method might be defined somewhere else, though:

• Your class could have inherited it from one of its parents ancestors (and in Perl, we have multiple inheritance);
• If the class (or its ancestor) uses a modern framework like Moose, the method could have been generated (as a clearer, reader, writer or whatever);
• If the method is not found, it could still be autoloaded (see Autoloading).