Logging named messages to syslog?

[Jim Reid]

    >> What is the best way to setup bind logging to syslog to a
    >> separate file (/var/log/named).  By default all log messages go
    >> to /var/log/messages.  

Use a file logging channel to make this file the default for 
the name server's messages. Or assign one of syslog's local facility
numbers to the name server, set up a syslog logging channel in
named.conf and have syslogd write messages in that facility to that
file.

    >> What is the default severity level of messages?

That depends on how severe the thing is that the message reports.