diff --git a/lib/linguist/shebang.rb b/lib/linguist/shebang.rb
index 55481f69..4ed11412 100644
--- a/lib/linguist/shebang.rb
+++ b/lib/linguist/shebang.rb
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ module Linguist
       lines = data.lines
       return unless match = /^#! ?(.*)$/.match(lines.first)
 
-      tokens = match[0].split(' ')
+      tokens = match[1].split(' ')
       script = tokens.first.split('/').last
 
       script = tokens[1] if script == 'env'
diff --git a/test/test_shebang.rb b/test/test_shebang.rb
index aa3218f3..b359a771 100644
--- a/test/test_shebang.rb
+++ b/test/test_shebang.rb
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ class TestShebang < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_interpreter "python2", "#!/usr/bin/python2.7\n\n\n\n"
     assert_interpreter "python3", "#!/usr/bin/python3\n\n\n\n"
     assert_interpreter "sbcl", "#!/usr/bin/sbcl --script\n\n"
+    assert_interpreter "perl", "#! perl"
   end
 
 end