See subsection 2 of perlref:Making references where it says:

As a special case, \(@foo) returns a list of references to the contents of @foo, not a reference to @foo itself

Just for fun try: 

print "$_" for \( %{{a =>1}}, @{[1..3]}, "fred" );;

HASH(0x2251b8)
ARRAY(0x194a9f4)
SCALAR(0x194aaa8)

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In reply to Re: referencing slices - love that DWIM by BrowserUk
in thread referencing slices - love that DWIM by GrandFather

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