Why can host and nslookup resolve a name but dig cannot

Can anyone tell me why this is happening? I can resolve a hostname using host and/or nslookup but forward lookups do not work with dig; reverse lookups do:

musashixxx@box:~$ host someserver
someserver.somenet.internal has address 192.168.0.252
musashixxx@box:~$ host 192.168.0.252
252.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer someserver.somenet.internal.
musashixxx@box:~$ nslookup someserver
Server:     192.168.0.253
Address:    192.168.0.253#53

Name:   someserver.somenet.internal
Address: 192.168.0.252
musashixxx@box:~$ nslookup 192.168.0.252
Server:     192.168.0.253
Address:    192.168.0.253#53

252.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa  name = someserver.somenet.internal.

musashixxx@box:~$ dig someserver

; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> someserver
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 55306
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;someserver.            IN  A

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.253#53(192.168.0.253)
;; WHEN: Wed Oct  3 15:47:38 2012
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 27

musashixxx@box:~$ dig -x 192.168.0.252

; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> -x 192.168.0.252
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 28126
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;252.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa.    IN  PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
252.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN PTR someserver.somenet.internal.

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.253#53(192.168.0.253)
;; WHEN: Wed Oct  3 15:49:11 2012
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 86

Here's what my resolv.conf looks like:

nameserver 192.168.0.253
search somenet.internal

Is this behavior normal? Any thoughts?