[1] is a reference. A reference in a numeric context gives you a memory address. Memory addresses are usually big. Storing an element out of range in an array will make Perl grow the array so it fits - creating undefined values to fill up the array. Storing an element using a big index will make Perl create a huge array, with all the elements taking two handfuls of bytes.

I'd say you're lucky it takes only 50Mb on your system. It dies on one system I tried it on, and it used 420 Mb on another.

Abigail